New Delhi: India’s top tennis player Yuki Bhambri has rated the gruelling match against Denis Shapovalov as one of the best of his career and was candid enough to admit Tuesday that India need top 50 singles players to become a force in the Davis Cup.
Yuki pushed the supremely talented Shapovalov before losing 6-7(2-7), 4-6, 7-6(8-6), 6-4, 1-6 after battling hard for three hours and 52 minutes in the recent Davis Cup World Group Play-off match between India and Canada.
“Personally, it was a very good Davis Cup tie for me. I will rate it among top three matches in my career, in terms of quality of play, fightback and duration of the tie,” Yuki, who is ranked 152 in the world, told this agency during an exclusive interaction.
Before going to Edmonton to take on Canada, the Indian had knocked out World No.22 Gael Monfils at the Citi Open, where he was as a qualifier and also beat many higher-ranked players in the course of the season.
Asked what he gains out of these wins, It’s the confidence. “But I need more consistency. I have played a lot of matches this year, just need to keep going. The focus is to finish (the 2017 season) strong.”
Yuki admitted that to qualify for the World Group and stay there, India need either better singles players or he and Ramkumar to get better in the ATP rankings.
“You need guys to be top 50 to do well. Both me and Ram (Ramkumar Ramanathan) are around 150 and by the end of the year we will be around 120. But you need someone, who is consistently in the top 50,” Yuki added.
Yuki is also of the opinion that the Indian Davis Cup team require a better doubles player. In the last four ties, India lost the doubles thrice (Canada, Spain, New Zealand) and won only against Uzbekistan.
“We need someone in the top 10, top 20 to help Rohan out there. In the past, doubles was our strength because two Grand Slam champions Mahesh (Bhupathi) and Leander (Paes) were playing. They played for 20 years,” Yuki stated.
“But when you are playing these Play-offs, you are playing the best teams in the world. So we need some who can match the calibre of Rohan (Bopanna),” added the Indian.
Winning start
Tashkent: Yuki Bhambri advanced to the singles second round of the ATP Tashkent Open and reached the doubles quarterfinals with compatriot Divij Sharan following an upset win over the top seeds, here Tuesday. In singles, Yuki was leading Aleksandr Nedovyesov 3-0 when the Kazakh opted out due to a right hip strain. In doubles, Yuki and Sharan knocked out the top-seeded Argentine pair of Guillermo Duran and Andres Molteni 6-4 6-2 in their first round.
Press Trust of India