Indian tennis fans had a rude awakening as “favourites” India were dumped out of the Davis Cup World Group Playoffs by the spirited Japanese Team who , after a 25 year wait , are finally amongst the top 16 nations in the world . And after rubbing shoulders with the best players last season , India finds themselves relegated to the zonal play in Asia/Oceania Group I next year.
The Davis Cup tie spoke volumes about the contrasting fortunes of the two nations in the tennis landscape . While Japan , led by Nishikori , aged just 21 and Sugita who turned 23 this week dished out some fine performance to haplessly blank India 4-1 , India’s bench strength ,sans Somdev Dev Verman looks quite bleak . With Bopanna the next best Singles player , ranked 556 , India’s obvious dependence on the doubles duo to snatch a win looks futile .
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Japan’s progress in the tennis circuit has been slow but steady . The manner in which Sugita outmastered the more fancied Somdev was a treat to watch . With Nishikori doing what was expected of him , it was not big of a surprise to see India blanked after going down 0-2 in the opening day . With Somdev crucially injured , he was unable to take the field on Sunday and Nishikori defeated the highly talented Vishnu Vardhan to claim the tie with a match to spare . The lone silver lining for India was their hard fought doubles win , a rubber which they seem to have clearly mastered .
Japanese captain Eiji Takeuchi admits that this is part of the plan :
We are aiming to create a talent pool of younger players,” he said. “When I first took over as captain, the average age of our players was over 30, but not anymore.”He further adds : “With Sugita, (Go) Soeda and (Tatsuma) Ito, we want to raise the level of their games,” . “We are looking to the younger players going forward, especially in the doubles. We have changed our development plans.
India’s davis cup Programs seem to be in the doldrums atleast temporarily. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are at the tail end of their career and barring Somdev Dev Verman who seems to be the future of Indian Tennis, the situation looks rather bleak. Surely Vishnu Vardhan is a great talent, yet India do not have the bench strength to compete amongst the best. At present, what All India Tennis Federation seems to be doing is to just lament at the difficult situation .
