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

[BSharma]

The Uzbeks made a big come back on the final day with 18 year old Dennis Istomin winning the fisth match to get past Indonesa (this 18 yr old kid looks to be a tough cookie for sure, winning 2 singles matches and a doubles match in his very first tie!) .. The coin toss came our way, and so Uzbekistan comes to India .. Looks like another grasscourt tie .. And I assume the rotation will continue between Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow, terrible as it is for Davis Cup to never ever move even to the bottom 2/3d of India, EVER .. Davis Cups are also played for the FANS to see, and the country's winning chances is not all that should matter (in my view) .. If it would take moving away from grass at least once in a while, I would even say let us do it .. Let us have one at Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Udagamandalam, Coimbatore, Goa or Mangalore or Kochi, where somebody may care to show up too .. I know, that is a below-the-belt- swipe, but it was embarrassing to hear of only school kids in the stands on Friday at Delhi, though it picked up on Saturday a bit.

(some words were highlighted by me in the above quote of Jay from his daily notes.

Jay, before you become too critical of places in the north that have hosted the Davis Cup, we should ask the cities in the south to get some grass courts.

Jay, I watched the Davis Cup tie in Lucknow between India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) about 32 years back. I paid Rs 5 each of the three days of the tie. Please keep in mind that a movie ticket in a good theater (good seats) used to cost about Rs 3 at that time. Ramanathan Krishnan, Jaydeep Mukherjea and Premjit Lal represented India although Krishnan did not suit up but played with a few kids after the matches each day. The Sri Lanka team was pathetic but the stadium was full on all three days with "paying" public.

Time will tell if paying public in Lucknow will fill the stands in 2005 or not. It appears that the Delhi public is certainly not interested in Davis Cup matches.

[jaydeep]

Lee made nice comments about all players after Davis Cup tie ... He said - "Prakash having tailor made game for these grass courts. Also these courts suited to my game and Mahesh is also very comfortable on these courts. Harsh's game is not suited to grass court. But he is having talent to perform on any courts." And then he added - "AITA should think seriously about grass courts. Becoz these r real home court advantage for us."

Jaydeep.

[Sandeep]

I am confused about this grass courts concept. Why do we think that we have a good chance on grass? Probably against weaker teams like China we may stand chance, but when it comes to stronger teams grass is going to be our first enemy. Except against spain probably any good team would beat us on grass on any day. Maxmirnyi with his serve and volley would be devastating on grass. Joachim Johanson, roddick, agassi, kiefer, scheutler the list goes on. if we face good team I think clay or as florian suggested some cowdung court would be better. Probablt that is the idea of AITA to identify some clay court specialists if at all we have to play home tie with some good team. May be that is why they are conducting three events on clay.

Is it time for us to start preparing courts(like cowdung one) which nullify the advantage of great players like how Indian cricket team prepares pitches to suite their spinners?

[BSharma]

I am confused about this grass courts concept. Why do we think that we have a good chance on grass? Probably against weaker teams like China we may stand chance, but when it comes to stronger teams grass is going to be our first enemy.

The grass court is being considered for the tie against Uzbekistan, and it is premature to think beyond that tie.

India stands a good chance on grass only against teams that have players who do not play well on grass. Uzbekistan may be one of those teams.

China would have given India a tougher time if the tie was played on hard courts.

Why should India squander away its edge against a team that plays better on hard court by choosing the hard courts for the tie? Is it to please people who live in cities that only have clay or hard courts? This is not the time to bring regional issues, and the most important issue should be that India must find a way to win whether the matches are played on grass or cow dung courts.

If Hyderabad has decent athletic facilities and is able to host tournaments involving many sports, more power to them. Those cities or states that complain about Hyderabad should shut up and build similar facilities. Period.

[Sandeep]

Yes, you are right. Chinese would have givena tough fight if we would have played on hard. I am not talking about hard, as on hard most of the players are good. But why are we not considering clay as a serious option?

[PKBasu]

No Indian has ever been a serious clay-court player. The best that Vijay and Ramesh did was make the occasional third round (or maybe one or two PQFs) at the French Open or Italian Open. I think Ramanathan Krishnan was the last of our players to have done anything serious on clay, but even he had no major accomplishments at Roland Garros.

Grinding out strokes from the back of the court is a European specialty, especially for players from Sweden, Spain and its off-shoots in Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and the Portuguese offshoot of Brazil). Of course some of these players have adapted to grass (most famously Borg; and the Swede Edberg had a game more suited to grass/hard courts than clay, but he and Bjorkman are the distinct exceptions, as indeed is the kid Joachim Johannsson).

It is difficult to say what made Indians such natural grass-courters apart from the fact that most tennis clubs had grass courts in the old days, and these were reserved for the best players. On grass the ball hardly bounces, so there's a terrific premium on sliced backhands with a full swivel of the body, drop-shots, and of course serve and volley. I remember Leander playing sliced drop-shots against Agassi at the Olympics (and Andre laughing about the audacity of anyone trying that against him), but I can assure you they would have been darned effective on grass, even against a fleet-footed player like Agassi.

Our natural grass-court ability is something that is being simply squandered for some obscure reason. Hewitt, for instance, doesn't appear to have the right kind of game for grass, but he does have natural ability and instincts on the surface (like the Amritrajs, Krishnans and Leander Paes do, and indeed Harsh Mankad demonstrated he does too this weekend). The next generation of Indian tennis players will sadly not have that natural ability. In trying to ape the Spanish, we are taking a very long (if not entirely futile) route to glory.

[Florian Buechting]

Hi,
as we just discussed the ranking in a German forum, I wrote down the Davis Cup rankings of all playoff teams. Teams who are not sure to qualify are marked with a * - and apart from that the ranking is not the updated one, but the one from December 2004

1. Spain
4. USA
7. Switzerland
8. Belarus
9. Sweden
12. Czech Republic
13. Austria
15. Chile
--- (first eight teams)
18. India *
19. Canada *
20. Paraguay *
22. Great Britain
23. Germany
...

As we all know, these rankings are not really important at the ITF. Nevertheless, this seems to be nearly impossible for India to get seeded this year, we just might hope for an comfortable draw if we beat the Uzbeks...

Yours,
Florian

[jaydeep]

Yes true Jay .. Our natural talent is game on grass court ... That we should keep alive, becoz this can help us having advantage against some minnows in Davis Cup ... Looking ahead and making players for clay court is good strategy but in that they should not kill skill of grass court game ... AITA can organise occasional grass court tournaments and develop all type of players who can succed on different surfaces ... So we can have multiple options in selection and we can use suited players to particular surface ... AITA killing art of playing on grass courts with not organising grass court events for juniors.

Jaydeep.

[jayakris]

Why should India squander away its edge against a team that plays better on hard court by choosing the hard courts for the tie? Is it to please people who live in cities that only have clay or hard courts? This is not the time to bring regional issues

Bhushan: At the expense of bringing in a rather sensitive item to the discussion, that comment is somewhat similar to what many US senators said about gays in the military. Too important for national security, so we have to discriminate against gays ... I know, that is an extreme analgy, but since we are into pizzas and burger, why not bring in another bad analgy?

I know about the grass court issue in the south. I would not aks that the Argentina or Spain tie be held on clay courts at Chennai! ... At least when we have an Uzbekistan coming to India, we should show the guts to play on hard courts for the sake of people in Mumbai or Goa or Chennai or Bangalore or Hyderabad.

I will continue to protest on this issue. If it is regionalism, so be it! .. My FIRST PRINCIPLE is, and has always been, that this game is played for the FANS. I need to see a kid in Bangalore or Mumbai getting a chance for an autograph saying "Leander Paes, captain, India". The Delhi school kids have had enough chance and they don't even care anymore. Not to mention the older folks. It was sad sad sad to see us having such a momentous day with Leander on the chair and HM and PA playing on Friday, with hardly 500 people in the stands.

If I am parochial, yeah, I am. People in the tennis circles need to show a bit more sensitivity first, BEFORE asking me to stop arguing for the fans in the south on account of national interest in winning the tie.

I don't see any of the tennis stalwarts even making a mention that it has been sad that people in south and west India have not seen a Davis Cup in over two decades. I was mad at Naresh Kumar, whom I respect like a GOD, writing on the Telegraph two days back that if it would be Uzbeks in India it should be another grass tie, but this time at the South Club. Stalwarts like him just take it so cavaliarly and take it for granted. So I will complain. As loudly as I can - regionalism or not (when I am asking for 2/3rds of the regions in India, I am not even sure you can call it regionalism anymore anyway). Till I see enough people noticing this fact, I will not shut up on this issue.

Jay

[PKBasu]

I must say I hadn't noticed that fact. It is truly absurd that we have not had a Davis Cup tie in the south in over two decades!! Amazing. Surely, Madras (Chennai) deserved a tie before Chandigarh (despite the recent emergence of Sunil Kumar Sipaeya).
I'm pretty sure the Bangalore club has grass courts, and of course the senior Ramanathan put in grass courts for his son Krishnan to play on in the early 1950s, so I'm sure there are some legacy grass courts somewhere in Chennai (where did the Amritrajs learn their craft otherwise?).
I suppose Chennai (with its own Open) at least gets its fill of tennis every year, but the rest of the south should see more Davis Cup; they can solve the problem by creating (or nurturing) some nice grass courts!
For now, I think Davis Cup home ties have to stay with the tried and tested South Club (as LP hinted in a story in the Telegraph)...
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050307/a ... 462860.asp

...or stay at the DLTA. The main factor against the latter is the lack of crowd interest. I can assure you there'll never be any such problem in Calcutta.

[PKBasu]

In a year or two, I think there will be a strong argument in favour of the MSLTA hard courts (the "lawn" in that name seems redundant now!), since these are Harsh Mankad's "home" courts.

[jayakris]

Heck, if MSLTA has the guts, they should ask for it NOW. Don't tell me we NEED grass courts to beat the Uzbeks. If they can beat PA, HM (and a rested LP in a 5th match if we are in trouble) in 3 of the 4 singles matches, we don't deserve to win.

Take the tie to Mumbai NOW. I am not sure when we will get such easy Asia-Oceania ties again. This next tie is the BEST time in quite a while for us to try a different location.

Perhaps it would take an IND-vs-PAK tie for us to consider hard or clay, because I think we *might* lose to Aisam and Aqeel on grass right now (if LP is not ready for singles).

Jay

[PKBasu]

Incidentally, the story in the Telegraph where LP talks about the beautiful grass courts at the South Club hosting the next tie is this one:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050307/a ... 462859.asp

Delhi at the end of April is blisteringly hot -- not ideal for tennis. Why the heck does Bangalore not get some of its old colonial grass courts up and ready for the Davis Cup? If not next month, within the next half-year or so...

[PKBasu]

Just short of two decades ago, we did play Sweden on grass courts in Bangalore (Aug '85). Since then, it has been DLTA and South Club mainly, with about 2 visits each to Jaipur and Chandigarh, one each to Lucknow and Bharuch (!). A lot of this is probably dependent on who is in control of the AITA. Don't be surprised if Ranchi, Jamshedpur (more likely) or even Hazaribagh (Yashwant Sinha's constituency) shows up on the itinerary in the near future...

[jayakris]

By the way, if you wondering about why it is important for thefans, I would give the story of my dad, a long time tennis fan (though a much bigger cricket fan, as everybody is). He can catch an overnight train ride from Kerala to Bangelore to go watch a Davis Cup (my sister is in Bangelore) .. Most people in the south can find somebody or other in Hyderbad, Chennai or Bangalore to go stay with and enjoy watching a Davis Cup. These folks have had to look at a 2-day train ride to get to any of the places where we have held Davis Cups for the last 20 years. Yes, he can go to Chennai to watch the Open, but he is an old school man who still cares for Davis Cup, and not as much for all the hoopla at a tour event.

The fans in the south and west have been completely forgotten for ages. Patently unfair.

Jay