Edmonton: India’s hopes for qualifying for the Davis Cup World Group suffered a huge setback as Rohan Bopanna and Purav Raja lost the crucial doubles rubber to hand Canada a 2-1 lead in the Davis in the play-off tie here, Saturday.
Bopanna and Raja lost 5-7, 5-7, 7-5, 3-6 to seasoned Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in two hours and 52 minutes to leave India with the difficult task of winning both the reverse singles to qualify for the elite 16-nation World Group.
Pospisil, 27, was the youngest on the court and the only one who plays the singles as well on the Tour. He made a huge difference to the outcome with his returns from near the baseline and perfect placements at the net.
Raja was superb at the net with his deft volley winners but limitations with his serve and baseline strokes hurt India badly. He dropped service twice in the first two sets and at both times India were down 5-6. India lost both the sets and from being two sets down, it was always going to be a huge task to make a comeback.
Bopanna’s big serving game was also missing as he served five double faults in the team’s total of 12. His single-handed backhand winners were nowhere to be seen.
“We played well enough to put ourselves in a position to control the match but we didn’t capitalise. At this level when you are playing two Wimbledon doubles champions, if you don’t take your chances you don’t deserve to win,” Indian captain Mahesh Bhupathi said after the match.
Nestor won Wimbledon titles in 2008 and 2009 with Serbia’s Nenand Zimonjic while Pospisil had won the grass court Grand Slam in 2014 with American Jack Sock.
Bhupathi also admitted that Bopanna was not at his best in the match. “Bops fought hard. It wasn’t the best match I have seen him play but he found a way to hang in there which was the key.”
Ramkumar Ramanathan, who gave India a point on the opening day, will take on World No. 51 Denis Shapovalov, Sunday before Yuki Bhambri locks horns with Brayden Schnur.
It went with serve till Raja came out to serve to stay in the first set and immediately went down 0-40 in the 12th game. Under pressure, he served a double fault to gift the rivals the opening set.
The second set began with a rare four straight breaks of serve before Pospisil held in the fifth. In between, there was huge drama in the second game when Raja, standing very close to the net, was found guilty of playing the ball before it crossed the net and the chair umpire gave the point to the Canadians.
Raja yet again came out to serve at 5-6 and again dropped serve to hand the Canadians a two-set lead. It was Pospisil again who hurt the Indian team with his returns.
Press trust of India
