Davis Cup 2020- India

[sameerph]

Not seen yet.

But, all over in first match. Gojo wins 36 64 62. Gojo was full of confidence in third set and Praj made too many unforced errors.

[jayakris]

[sameerph]

RamK lost the first set 67(8).

Pretty good fight though. I did not watch much in first set but it seems not much of serve and volley at all from him in this match.

[RohitG]

I saw the last 5-6 games of the first set. Based on that, he did quite a lot of serve-volley rather. His net game was brilliant. Came up with some deft touches. Completely different player from what we have seen in the last few months. That's the only positive to take out of today for me. It has been painful, to not have our guys get a breakthrough but moments like these give me some hope that things will turn around. If RamK can play like this, he should chart his schedule focusing on indoor courts (similar to this one) and grass. Maybe we will have a great second half of the year, who knows? Praj won't have much to defend, Sumit will get rolling, RamK gets his breakthroughs in the grass season, Mukund plays in the slams (qualies at least) and Yuki makes a comeback.

Meanwhile, Ram gets a Break chance, Cilic getting less first serves in now. Forget the result, this is a breath of fresh air to see Ram play like this. Top it off with Som on the commentary, catch it on Dsport. Somehow playing these top guys brings out a better game out of our players.

[sameerph]

Damn, RamK lost 67(8) 67(8).

Watched the whole of second set. RamK played superbly. If he plays like that on tour, no way he should get beaten by those challenger scrubbs.

[RohitG]

That was an outrageous call by the linesman/umpire at 9-8 in the second set. Kinda sealed the momentum for Croatia, Ram had hit a wonderful cross court backhand.. stretching Cilic into playing a defensive block. Nevertheless we couldn't cry on that after Praj lost the first match.

This is perhaps the best Ram has played in the last 1.5 years..

[sameerph]

True, this is the best I have seen RamK play too in a while.

I wish Prajnesh had beeen a bit more pumped up as RamK was. Being all charged up is something which really fires you up in a davis cup tie. It may come naturally to RamK but Prajnesh does not seem that kind. Only if we had a captain who could do that to fire up Prajnesh, we may have had a different result in first match. Sadly, we had Rohit Rajpal who hardly ever got up from his chair during the whole match.

[PKBasu]

It is absurd that Rohit Rajpal is the captain, and even worse that he’s actually sitting on the captain’s chair. He should have deputed Leander to do it for him. Very disappointing loss from Prajnesh. Where is the spirit of Tianjin?

[sameerph]

Lee and Bops lead 4-1 in the first set.

[sameerph]

And they retain that break to win the first set 6-3.

[sameerph]

We missed a bp in first game of second set. There was a net chord on Pavic second serve there which could have turned into double fault but did not.

Rohan hold easily for 1-1.

Another bp missed by us and Croatians hold for 2-1. We must keep up the momentum and try to take these chances to break early in this set.

Lee started with a double fault but won next 4 points to hold for 2-2.

Pavic holds after deuce for 3-2.

Bops in a bit of trouble at 15-30 but won the next 3 points. Some Lee magic at the net and ends with an ace.

And finally they break on their 4th breakpoint of the set with a sizzling fh return by Bops after it was set up by super returns by Leander. 4-3 up.

But Lee broken back at 30 for 4-4.

Pavic holds at love for 5-4. First easy service game of this set for Croatians. Is the momentum changing here ?

Bops holds at 15 for 5-5.

We were 0-30 up on Skugor serve and then deuce bit Croats hold for 6-5. Key Lee service game coming up

And he holds at love for 6-6 . Tie break time.

From 3-5 down our guys get back to 6-5. but Croats save mp on their serve for 6-6 and now 7-6. 7-7. 8-7, great volley by bops give another mp. 8-8 , 8-9, 9-9, 9-10 , 9-11.

Croatia take the second set tie break after 2 match points.

[PKBasu]

Humdinger of a tiebreaker is won by the Croats 11-9. 1 set all. We had two match points on the opponents’s serve but couldn’t convert.

[sameerph]

I went away for a while and when j came back we were down a break and Croats serving at 4-3. But our guys got the break back and RB just held for 5-4.

Pavic holds at love for 5-5.

Lee holds at 15 for 6-5.

[jayakris]

Now 6-5 and the Croats serving. Yeah!!! Got it at AD out BP. We take the doubles match at 63 67(9) 75 and are still alive!!!

Great to see the old warriors making that big come back from a break down late in the third set, winning 4 of the final 5 games. Who woulda thunk that LP would be playing and winning a world group qualifier match at almost age 47 against Croatia, in his final year of tennis!

[sameerph]

Great stuff by our guys after failing to close it it out in second set and after looking down and out in third set.

Leander is incredible. Keeps winning at 46. His net play was still the best among 4 players android returns were superb too. And despite seemingly weak serve, got broken only once in entire match.

Of course, Rohan also played brilliantly today with his backhand returns and was probably a tad bit better player today than Leander.

And of course have to give it to Indian selectors for picking this pair. Do not think Divij and Rohan would have won this.