India Davis Cup -2025

[Rajiv]

For the 2025 Group 1 playoff, had to read this draw few times over to make sure about our opponents.

End Jan/ Early Feb 2025 we are drawn against Togo at home.
Didn't even know that this nation a small dot on the African continent even had a Tennis culture to reach this level.

On the ATP rankings Togo have a solitary player ranked outside the 1000's and rather than using the same old names , we should try out the youngsters from the present crop and give them a chance to play the live rubbers against this kind of the opponents.

[jayakris]

^^^ And it is a good chance to make somebody with playing experience in at least a Davis Cup live match (actually anything better than a dead rubber loss) as our Davis Cup captain.

[rajitghosh]

For a country that used to play with the best of the world and beat them at times what a fall this is to play against Togo. Gone are the days when we could compete against and beat the Aussies, the French, the Dutch and so.many others.

[Rajiv]

we should try out the youngsters from the present crop and give them a chance to play the live rubbers against this kind of the opponents.

Well the Captain too felt it was no better opportunity than a home tie to groom and nurture the younger players and shared the same above opinion.

https://sportstar.thehindu.com/tennis/d ... 126513.ece

but then on second thoughts how do you groom the youngsters and give them a chance to showcase and play a live rubber ,when the same old faces like Mukund , Ram , Balaji who would be playing all the matches figure in the team , dont think he would be bold enough to replace those names with Aryan , Chirag , Yuvan , Karan in a live rubber.

[ericcw]

Probably Rohit Rajpal meant next crop in doubles as Indians living in India (I think our forum is mostly NRIs) think equally about doubles.

I believe Rithvik Bollipalli is the youngest amongst the doubles specialists.

[Rajiv]

That is a wrong what you are assuming as no where in the article it states that Rohit is implying to groom a solitary point of doubles and ignoring 4 points of Singles play if grooming is objective , And dbls teams are not groomed by team captains like as in singles, they just carry forward or consolidate with the available combinations of dbls player around.
With this team composition a good chance to pitch fork the younger players for live rubbers has been fritted away.

[ericcw]

I agree with you. I am only trying to make sense of his press statement as Rithvik is the youngest player in the team and he is a doubles player.

[jayakris]

I agree with you. I am only trying to make sense of his press statement as Rithvik is the youngest player in the team and he is a doubles player.

Don't try. Rohit Rajpal does not deserve to be (and never had any business being) our DC captain, and he says meaningless junk quite often. Get that Captain sideburns out of there. What a shame for India to have a guy who has a virtually nonexistent history as a DC or pro player as our captain. And the uy is kept there for ever as the captain by AITA. Like there is nobody else in India to do that job. Infuriating.

[ericcw]

[ericcw]

[Dinesh]

^^^ Please. Will you refrain from posting content like this? I don’t think anybody in this forum has even an iota of respect for this loser.

[ericcw]

Sorry isn't he our Davis Cup Captain? When it comes to country, we should try to move aside our internal differences for the sake of our flag.

[jayakris]

^^^ I would agree, but there are some extreme-case exceptions. Captain sideburns is one. He had no business ever becoming our captain, and AITA keeps thumbing their collective nose at the whole country and us tennis fans by keeping him as captain for ever. When it comes to this man, we cannot support this even for the country's sake. I could do do it for 1 or 2 ties, but this is like he is the unquestioned captain for ever - even after players, fans and reporters have openly questioned it for years now. There is a limit to our patience too.

Kick that man out of there. He is a shame and an embarrassment for India.

[ericcw]

So we will have our forum supporting Togo? Or just ignore the Davis Cup tie?

[PKBasu]

Nobody here will be supporting Togo. Hopefully, India will sweep this tie against an over-matched opponent.

The fact that India (with a glorious history of making Davis Cup finals in 1966, 1974 and 1987 and a World Group semifinal in 1993) is now reduced to playing in the lower reaches of the Davis Cup (effectively qualifiers of qualifiers) is a disgrace -- for which Rohit Rajpal as non-playing captain is largely responsible. (For instance, why the hell is he -- the man who never made it to the top-500 in pro singles, and lost the only match, that too an irrelevant rubber, he ever played in the Davis Cup -- the non-playing captain). Zeeshan Ali at least made it to 126 in the singles rankings; if AITA had any shame, Zeeshan would be captain, not ex-coach of the Davis Cup team. Or, there would be another real former pro like Somdev DevVarman as non-playing captain, actually helping India try climbing back to the equivalent of the World Group.