Davis Cup 2005 (WG playoff vs SWE in India!)

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:51 am

Jay, is anonymous1 still for guests? Or is it registered by this mysterious man.

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:26 am

if harsh is 'inconsistent' then PA is his grandfather in terms of inconsistency. PA has absolutely done nothing over the past year, NOTHING. he gets into major ATP tourneys or qualies by wc and then proceeds to lose.

Amr, bang on target.. Unlesss PA gets couple of quality wins, i am not sure he deserves a spot.. But mark my words, citing that we are playing on Grass court, PA will get the second spot..

amr090 · Post by **amr090** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 3:29 am

i agree with you completely kumar. i have a bad feeling that the head honchos of davis cup selection will use Harshs few bad performances of late, cite the surface and deny him davis cup. personally if i were harsh i wouldnt care so much. it gives him a chance to play another tournament and make money. the real loser is indian tennis and india.

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:24 am

Right guys Harsh is better choice than others from his recent performance ... But then while selection of Davis Cup team, authorities generally took consideration of players's performance on particular surface and his game style suited to that surface or not ... I don't think they do something wrong ... All over the world u will find same selection procedure for Davis Cup selection ... Here Davis Cup coaches doesn't go by ranking but particular player's performance on that particular surface ... Thats count most.

But still PA is better serve and vollyer, I will still select Harsh on his better mental toughness than PA to handle crunch situations.

Jaydeep.

amr090 · Post by **amr090** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:36 am

jaydeep PA maybe a better server but I don't even know if we can say if PA is the better volleyer. Harsh has tremendous volleying skills and plays doubles a whole lot more than PA. PA never plays doubles and I dont know just how much he volleys.

I think Harsh is pretty much an allcourt player...what has PA done on grass to warrant him being called a grass court player? The fact that he serves and volleys. That doesnt necessarily mean anything. There is nothing to suggest PA would do better on grass, as he has not really played well in general at all.

If you look at Harsh davis cup matches theyve all been away and he hasnt been blown out in a single one. I think this nod HAS to go to Harsh. I mean give the guy a shot to show what he can do.

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:21 am

amr090 wrote:what has PA done on grass to warrant him being called a grass court player?

May be legacy of father ...

Jaydeep.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:29 am

Prakash won one round in the Wimbledon qualifier last year. That is the only known grass-court performance of any significance I know of. I think he has the game for grass potentially, but we can't go on hopes and potential. Harsh Mankad showed in Chennai that he is the #1 Indian singles player at the moment (yes, ahead of LP too), and I think he has to be a certainty for the Davis Cup singles slot. LP should play as #2 singles player. And frankly I think Sunil should be the fourth member of the squad (he did make some noise at junior Wimbledon). I would have gone with Karan as fourth member, but not on grass.

knarayen · Post by **knarayen** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 6:11 am

PKBasu wrote:Prakash won one round in the Wimbledon qualifier last year. That is the only known grass-court performance of any significance I know of. I think he has the game for grass potentially, but we can't go on hopes and potential. Harsh Mankad showed in Chennai that he is the #1 Indian singles player at the moment (yes, ahead of LP too), and I think he has to be a certainty for the Davis Cup singles slot. LP should play as #2 singles player. And frankly I think Sunil should be the fourth member of the squad (he did make some noise at junior Wimbledon). I would have gone with Karan as fourth member, but not on grass.

This coincides with my feelings exactly. I think, though, that we should start grooming singles player # 2 as well. Lee has carried the ball for so long and so well, and its about time India gave him the opportunity to focus completely on doubles alone and the captaincy. Let the younger guys carry the load. If Karan is looking so good, I would even move him up a couple of notches and play him at # 2 singles and give him a chance to get that critical experience.

Curious about Prakash though. Looks like he is in some kind of a slump? Didnt he have a leg injury problem that required him to tape his leg up big time every time he went out and played? Someone noticed this last year I think.

Is Sunil playing better now or is he also in a slump?

Krish

Sandeep · Post by **Sandeep** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:00 am

Serve and volleying on grass is pretty handy. But, Indians are not going to face sampras or federer in davis cup. All they have to do is play well. It doesn't matter if it is serve and volley or baseline as long as the opponent is not a top 20 or 30 player. Grass court favours serve and vollley doesn't mean that, you just rush to net and you win. A good serve and volley player need to have an all court game, other wise his advantage is nullified. And I don't think PA has such a great all court game that he outclasses Harsh. IF a player is in good form, I would always prefer him irrespective of the surface they are playing on . And here I feel, especially this year Harsh has done far better than PA and deserves a place. Unless PA does some miracle this season, Harsh should be a straight forward choice.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:22 am

knarayen wrote:
Is Sunil playing better now or is he also in a slump?

Krish

Sunil just had his best results in a long time, and is near the top of his game. He won the Delhi Futures (singles) and made the semifinal at the Mumbai Futures in January (although he lost to Karan in the ABN-Amro challenge for the Rotterdam wild-card in December).

Post by **Dhruv** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:48 am

nothingnew wrote:Jay, is anonymous1 still for guests? Or is it registered by this mysterious man.

Still for guests.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:01 pm

Let Leander decide who should play singles for India in the Davis Cup. He will look at their current form, mental strength, strength and weaknesses against the Chinese players, etc in deciding who will best stack up against the Chinese team.

How well Leander selects the team will decide how good a Davis Cup captain he is. I think that he is man enough to not fall for the pressures put on him to select a particular player.

My vote goes for Harsh but I don not think that LP or AITA cares about my input.

Post by **jayakris** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:23 pm

I agree Bhushan. Exactly. Let Leander pick the team. He will have a chance to see Karan this weekend (I hope he gets there by tomorrow - he is playing doubles at Rotterdam).. He has seen Harsh play at Chennai recently. He is definitely aware of whether SKS is in injury trouble or not (he often has something or other).

Nobody has commented on what I said above about the sudden emergence of Peng Sun as a top-250 type player in the last month or so. Yu Wang also playing well. I hope Leander Leander has noticed. This is making me worry a little bit more than I did earlier.

This Davis Cup is no longer a slam dunk like it looked earlier.

Jay

knarayen · Post by **knarayen** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:28 pm

jayakris wrote:
Nobody has commented on what I said above about the sudden emergence of Peng Sun as a top-250 type player in the last month or so. Yu Wang also playing well. I hope Leander Leander has noticed. This is making me worry a little bit more than I did earlier.

This Davis Cup is no longer a slam dunk like it looked earlier.

Jay

My guess is that the Chinese players are getting themselves into a match-tough state well in advance of the India tie. Harsh is also trying to do the same thing. Lee and Hesh can take care of the doubles for us if both play. We really need the "other" singles player (Lee or someone else) to start the match-tough process NOW. Otherwise as Jay indicates we are in for a nasty letdown.

Regards,
Krish

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