Davis Cup 2024- India

[sameerph]

While I agree Balaji is almost out of singles, RamK struggling against Aisam was hard to digest. Aisam was never a very good singles player. They said the court bounce was low. Maybe that hurt RamK. But I think that should have helped him instead.

Aisam is pretty good on grass. He reached second round in main draw at Wimbledon in 2007 when he reached career high singles ranking of 125 which is not far from career high ranking of RamK of 111.

Also being familiar with those grass courts and egged on by crowd would have also played a part.

[jayakris]

While I agree Balaji is almost out of singles, RamK struggling against Aisam was hard to digest. Aisam was never a very good singles player. They said the court bounce was low. Maybe that hurt RamK. But I think that should have helped him instead.

If it is grass courts for Davis Cup in the subcontinent, low bounce *is* the reason why people struggle. That is the advantage we have lost from not even holding grass court nationals properly, let alone pro events. We need to hold at least a couple of grass events every year (nationals and one challenger or ITF 50 each for men and women (a least men) every year. It is a pity that we don't do it when we have places like South Club (Kolkata), Awadh Gymkhana (Lucknow), CLTA (Chandigarh) and the Jaipur courts which are all capable of holding tournaments. Also Dehra Dun, iirc. Heck we did an Ahmedabad challenger once on temporary grass courts made on the grass turf at the stadium there (LP won that challenger). Not too many countries have that many tournament-worthy locations with grass courts. It may involve some extra expense though, which is where AITA can come in and help.

Pakistan still has their grass court nationals, by the way, and guys like Aqeel were playing there till recently (I think he won it even in 2020). That is why Aisam and Aqeel are able to do something against much-younger Balaji and RamK. The low-bounce subcontinental grass courts was a reason why we used to pull big Davis Cup upsets in the LP/MB days (except the Frejus miracle, it was all mostly on grass at home). Water it "properly" to create an even more uneven surface, and even the best from abroad used to be all at sea against us.

Then there is the extra item about one advantageous athletic trait in the Indians (possibly genetic). The unusually flexible wrists with strength. Ramanathan, RK, LP, MB, Sania, and maybe even Bops were all noted for unusual wrist abilities. Many hockey greats from Dhyanchand to Dhanraj in the grass era had that to their advantage. Javelin great Neeraj also is noted for his unusual wrist (and maybe even other good javelin guys the subcontinent is producing now). Some of the cricket greats like ML Jaisimha, GR Viswanath, Chandrasekhar were others with unique wrist advantages. It is too many cases for us to disregard the observation that there must be some genetic traits that help us in this. We perhaps have genetic advantages in reflexes too. Grasscourt tennis is one event where this could all be put to use.

Sure, one can't make a living with that on the tennis tour anymore, but it doesn't take much to keep some near-net skills with you for the grass courts. Occasionally the skills can help you win a point or two in the regular baseline tennis these days too. Indians cannot hit a volley to save their lives these days, as we commonly see. As long as our players have the ground strokes and everything else tuned up on hard and clay courts, the net game that is honed up in 2 or 3 weeks of hitting on grass every year (from junior days on) can only help.

It is also useful in doubles, by the time the players graduate to that - as happened in LP, MB and Bops cases. Having even 2 grass events at home every year would only help (and the nationals also, that these players would play for a few years before getting to top-300). One reason players like Yuki has not reached top-25 in doubles yet is also his lack of skills in this regard (imho).

India should be having a grass season, say in December or something every year. We should be doing a J300 level junior event on grass too. The trouble is worth it. But when has AITA thought strategically about anything?

I am sad that the identifying characteristics of Indian tennis, that we were known for - grass and wrist prowess - is lost for ever. We were known for a tradition, and things like that are important to talk about. If for nothing else, to get people interested in the game. Being known for "something" is better than being known as an also-ran. But we are not even an also-ran now, and are known for nothing!

Two old Pakistanis, who were no better than top-150 and top-350, that too 16 to 20 years ago, showed us today how far we have fallen. Shame on you, AITA.

[jayakris]

Ok heard it from the Horse's mouth
15 40, just went big , just big with 2 aces to level it to duece.

This also shows that RamK has got his confidence back, about his game. I am really looking forward to a resurgence this year, back to top-200.

[arjun2761]

Sriram Balaji (IND) beat Aqeel Khan (PAK) 7-5, 6-3

We are up 2-0.

While I agree Balaji is almost out of singles, RamK struggling against Aisam was hard to digest. Aisam was never a very good singles player. They said the court bounce was low. Maybe that hurt RamK. But I think that should have helped him instead.

Uneven surfaces generally help the lower ranked player. For example, if the ball skids on the ground, even I may be able to win a point or two from a professional tennis player.

[VReddy]

This also shows that RamK has got his confidence back, about his game. I am really looking forward to a resurgence this year, back to top-200.

Is top-200 worth it when he can be a regular top-10 doubles player? In the pursuit of this top-200 ATP / Grand Slam qualies career, he is losing out on potential top-10 / Grand Slam contending doubles career.

When he turns doubles full time pro after retiring from singles in 3-4 years.. he can still be a solid doubles player like Divij but would be incredibly difficult to get into the doubles legend league.

When RamK won 2 ATP titles in 2022, that should have been the time to prioritise doubles, he still can but time is ticking away fast if he wants greatness.

[jayakris]

^^ I Think he should give it a final go. He fell off the rankings due to injury issues. If those have gone away, he should give it a go in singles just to make sure that he doesn't have it in him to make top-100 again. If he makes top-200 in a few months and finds it tough to get wins against top-150 in a few high challengers and ATP qualies, he should see the writing on the wall and quit. I feel he never got convinced that his abilities to win matches diminished (he probably knew it was mostly injury-induced issues). Let him convince himself and not ask "what if" questions for the rest of his career. Yuki made three separate come-backs to top-150 and top-100 before he got convinced. This is RamK's first attempt. I think it is reasonable to try.

I agree that he should not wait too long before switching to doubles. No more than a year, to make a call - and I expect that it will be to switch to doubles full time. Let him do it on his own terms. That is what my view is...

[Omkara]

Things relevant 3 decades ago are no longer relevant today. Hardly six weeks of grass tennis in the year. Hence, we need to move to hard courts and clay courts. Likes of Sumit proves we have the technique to do well on clay courts.

If low uneven courts are the main reason why our players struggled, I am glad they won. It proved they have the mental strength to pull it off in uncharted territories.

However, grass has class. Looks great. We have a history of it. Hence, if we can organise good national & international events, we can draw attention. It needs to be celebrated I agree. And despite less interest internationally we can make niche out of it, running parellaly to our main tournaments.

[sameerph]

Yuki-Saketh win the first set 6-2 against Aqeel and Murtaza.

[sameerph]

And they win 63 76(5) to win the match and we win the tie 3-0.

[Atithee]

Looks like we won 4-0 as Niki Poonacha took his match against a youthful Muhammad Shoaib 6-3, 6-4, winning in 64 minutes.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1811125

[sameerph]

So, let us take a look at our possible opponents for world group 1 tie in September. We will not be seeded among the 24 nationals who are playing group 1 ties. So, our opponents will be one of the top 12 seeds.

So, they are likely to be 1 among these 12 ( a couple may vary based on new rankings which will get updated today or tomorrow)-

Serbia (home)
Croatia (home)
Kazakhstan (home)
Sweden (away)
Korea (away)
Colombia (toss)
Switzerland (away)
Hungary (toss)
Japan (home)
Portugal (toss)
Austria (home)
Norway (home)

Everyone looks tough against our current team.

[arjun2761]

Congrats to a clinical win by India after the initial match struggle! Looks like Aisam picked up a hamstring injury in the initial match which made it easier otherwise the doubles would have been a much more difficult match.

We look overmatched against most of the teams in the next round but in the Davis Cup anything can happen particularly at home. So, hopefully we will get a home tie....

[jayakris]

We look overmatched against most of the teams in the next round but in the Davis Cup anything can happen particularly at home. So, hopefully we will get a home tie....

But we no longer have much of a home advantage. We don't have clay courts to use our clay strengths (Sumit) and we don't have players to use our traditional strength (grass courts). We shouldn't expect any miracles... I guess I have become negative and totally a wet blanket these days.

But you are right that we really got lucky with the hamstring issue that Aisam had after one set. The whole thin could have turned around otherwise. But then again, it would be too much to expect Aisam to have pulled off three wins for them without running into physical ailments, even if he had won the first match against RamK. The way Aqueel looked against Balaji, we would have won the tie even after droppingg the first match.

[Dinesh]

^^^ You are whining too much these days :shrug:

[arjun2761]

I think we have to pick a slower hard court to suit Sumit's game. Sumit has won far more matches (eight wins including 2 main draw wins) in hard GS's (including qualies) than he has on clay (where he has 1 qualies win). So he can be effective on slower hard court surfaces. Our hope will be to have Sumit win 2 matches and win the doubles. Quite a long shot but not beyond the realm of possibility...