India Davis Cup -2025

[ericcw]

... But those TV comments make me cringe. "Nobody expected this"?? Come on!

The TV commentators were Anand and Vijay Amritraj

[Omkara]

This tie is turning out to be a joke. Just a bunch of players and captain trying to earn some money and social media time.

Good for them.

[jayakris]

The TV commentators were Anand and Vijay Amritraj

I know. They are playing the game for AITA, what else? They definitely know better than to say that "nobody expected this" like it is some accomplishment. But they didn't say anything that will hurt Indian tennis, so I have no issue with them. If saying such things will help get more viewers excited about Indian tennis, that is good. It is just that many of us would just cringe when we hear that about a win over Togo.

[arjun2761]

Expected win for India loading.

Did check the record for Togo and they just aren’t good. They beat Latvia 4-0 in Togo but Latvia played 2 singles players who had no ATP ranking. Gulbis wasn’t part of the team for Latvia and neither was Ostapenko.

Previous to that they won a thrilling 3-2 decision against Indonesia with Indonesia having a 900+ and 1500+ player. They are likely similar to the equally worthless Pakistan team that we played recently.

[Atithee]

Togo has the same value in the fine dining establishments as the Togo sandwich chain in California. They may even have folded as I don’t see them around as much. Even one word of discussion on this tie is one too many. We really needed Amritraj brothers to cheapen themselves so much especially if they uttered the nonsense quoted here? Wow!

[Sanjay]

The TV commentators were Anand and Vijay Amritraj

I know. They are playing the game for AITA, what else? They definitely know better than to say that "nobody expected this" like it is some accomplishment. But they didn't say anything that will hurt Indian tennis, so I have no issue with them. If saying such things will help get more viewers excited about Indian tennis, that is good. It is just that many of us would just cringe when we hear that about a win over Togo.

Maybe they meant "Nobody expected this kind of beat-down".

[jayakris]

^^^ I would say that it would still be hyperbole. Most people who follow tennis would have expected precisely this kind of a beat-down from RamK (unless RamK were to have an off-day, like Rajiv feared). What was expected was a match where the Togo guy would take no more than 3 or 4 games off him. The difference in class is that big.

[ericcw]

[Rajiv]

^^ Doordarshan guys have a good sense of humor, calling the win historic

[prasen9]

It is historic. We have never won against Togo. And, perhaps, we have never won against a weaker opponent. Which begs the question: do you recall us playing a weaker opponent?

[rajitghosh]

I think it is truly historic. I think after today SI forum should stop following tennis. We have sunk to such abysmal depths that beating Togo requires such huge celebrations. Wonder whether we'll ever climb about of this abyss. What a joke!!! Historic win indeed!!! In the old days we would face some lowly opponents like Iran, Sri Lanka or Indonesia in the early rounds. But I don't we ever needed to celebrate such wins. Those were routine wins before we faced some strong European or American nation or Australia.

[ericcw]

[Rajiv]

It is historic. We have never won against Togo. And, perhaps, we have never won against a weaker opponent.

Ok...by that logic our cricket team winning over Togo in Cricket would also be termed as historic.

In recent past Leander and Co played Hkg, Lebanon, but quietly went through the motions without such euphoria as seen now.
And before you start thinking Hong kong had a Coleman Wong, kind of players let me tell you the Hkg team was made of coaches, university players and part-time players.
Lebanon too we played during that time

[prasen9]

It is historic. We have never won against Togo. And, perhaps, we have never won against a weaker opponent.

Ok...by that logic our cricket team winning over Togo in Cricket would also be termed as historic.

In recent past Leander and Co played Hkg, Lebanon, but quietly went through the motions without such euphoria as seen now.
And before you start thinking Hong kong had a Coleman Wong, kind of players let me tell you the Hkg team was made of coaches, university players and part-time players.
Lebanon too we played during that time

Yes, it would be historic for our cricket team to win over Togo.

Well, I was being sarcastic. I agree with you all, of course, that celebrating wins over Togo and calling it historic is nonsense ...

What were the rankings of the players Hongkong and Lebanon had? Is it a historic low with Togo? I am interested in the sake of trivia to find out if this is the weakest opponent which we ever faced.

[jayakris]

Lebanon in Lebanon was not considered a gimme at that time, if I remember correctly. They had a decent player of top-600 quality or something and our #1 Harsh Mankad needed to get the job done on clay. We weren't sure if he would, as LP and others had stopped singles by then. The Lebanese player could not handle the 'fulgurating strokes from Mankad" said the only one online news blurb I found at that time to report on the match... (I think I didn't know the word "fulgurating" then, which is why I remember the match ).