Davis Cup 2024- India

[sameerph]

You are right, checked just now. No visual as of now.

[Rajiv]

There goes the first set on a TB , tight matches through out , with each one mostly holding at love untill the TB
and then the break on the opening point and the last point of the the TB to give it away.

and in S2 , Ramu breaks Quereshi at love in the opening game.
Holds at love to make it 2 nil

[jayakris]

The first set went away just as I had feared. Now we need to hope for RamK to push it to the third set and tire out Aisam. Hoping... Otherwise this tie will end up in a loss. We cannot afford to lose this match.

8 aces by Aisam and 12 by RamK so far at 67(3) 22. What the heck!

[Rajiv]

and quickly gives the break back to his host for a 2 all score

[jayakris]

RamK saved 15-40 2BPs and held. Phew... 67(3) 44

[Rajiv]

Ramu , just takes the S2 on TB and almost made a hash out of it when leading 61 and allowed the paki to come back to 46 before holding his nerve to close it out at 74
Come On India !!!!

[jayakris]

The key was 8 straight points that RamK took (10 of 11 in that streak) from when he served at 5-6. Very timely charge from our man. Went up 4-0 in the TB and had enough cushion to ward off a late charge from Aisam who saved 3 of the 5 set points.

[Rajiv]

Ram breaks Quereshi and comfortably holds his serve at love to go 3 nil in the deciding set.
the break was admirable as Aisam was 40-15 up only to get broken
First time in the match , India with its nose in front.

Okay.. breaks again and then holds to go 5 love up
The Pakistani has nothing left in the tank.

had Ram not saved those break points at 15-40 in the 7th game of the second set , the scoreline would have been different , But to his credit , Ram fought back to save that crucial vital break and win it for India.

[jayakris]

Yes, saving those two BPs in the 8th game to get to 4-4 was a key... along with the timely run of 10/11 points from 5-6. If he had made any mistakes, Aisam would have closed it out. Thank you RamK. Great job!!

RamK won 36 of the final 49 points, showing that Aisam had clearly run out of gas. The fight to save 3 set pts in the TB was the last bit of resistance from him. Props to him too, for doing his best at the ripe old age he is at.

[sameerph]

Phew, what a relief for RamK to pull out that win from the brink so to say. If Aisam would have won, Pak would have been on top. Now I think we are favorites.

[Rajiv]

RamK saved 15-40 2BPs and held. Phew... 67(3) 44

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

And not only an inspired opponent but more daunting was the crowd , never had seen such a partisan crowd it was exactly like Kargil our army climbing up the slopes facing gunfire from the, top and taking the heights and how well our boy handled both these adversaries to remain calm and focused.

The only chance Querishi had was to hold on to his serve with his life and went on to employ unfair tactics, taking long extra time after every serve upto even a minute to serve and even the neutral umpire didn't do anything about these delaying tactics, But Ram was mentally prepared for these antics and didn't let all of this affect his game and remained concentrated to overcome all these odds and do it for BHARAT.

[jayakris]

^^^ Nice!!!

Meanwhile, Balaji just won the first set 7-5... Had a BP in the 6th game, and had a 30-40 set point also that Aqee saved, but he closed it out at AD out on Aqeel's serve. Neither player was taking many points off the other, and many were love games, but Bala did the job when it counted. 75 00

[Omkara]

RamK saved 15-40 2BPs and held. Phew... 67(3) 44

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

And not only an inspired opponent but more daunting was the crowd , never had seen such a partisan crowd it was exactly like Kargil our army climbing up the slopes facing gunfire from the, top and taking the heights and how well our boy handled both these adversaries to remain calm and focused.

The only chance Querishi had was to hold on to his serve with his life and went on to employ unfair tactics, taking long extra time after every serve upto even a minute to serve and even the neutral umpire didn't do anything about these delaying tactics, But Ram was mentally prepared for these antics and didn't let all of this affect his game and remained concentrated to overcome all these odds and do it for BHARAT.

Any clue where is it being telecast?

[Omkara]

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.

[sameerph]

It was supposed to be telecast on Sony Ten sports but apparently it was not there. I am outside, so could not check.

Anyway, Balaji won 75 63 against Aqueel Khan and we are up 2-0 at the end of day 1.