Yuki Bhambri (157) beat Gael Monfils in the Citi Open earlier this month.
For the past few Davis Cup ties, the Indian team has steadily shifted focus to singles. It’s a similar strategy against Canada, for the World Group Playoff in September. And in Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan, the Indians have two singles players high in form and confidence.
“We had to give importance to singles when we made the selection since four of the five rubbers are singles matches, and Yuki and Ramkumar were automatic picks given their rankings and performances,” says SP Misra, chairman of the selection committee. Along with the pair, Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni have been named in the squad, along with reserve players N Sriram Balaji and Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
In June, at the Antalya Open, Ramkumar came up with a straight-sets win over world No.8 Dominic Thiem, and then stretched 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis in the next round. The string of performances, which also included a runner-up finish at the Winnetka Challenger took the 22-year-old’s ranking up to a career high 168.
Bhambri meanwhile is India’s highest ranked player at 157. The 25-year-old, who has twice broken into the top 100 rankings, came up with a strong run at the Citi Open, beating World No.22 Gael Monfils. He followed it up with a win over former World No.39 Guido Pell, before losing to former No.10 Kevin Anderson in three sets.
“Those two big wins against Thiem and Monfils will make them fearless when it comes to playing against top opposition later on,” says Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali.
Against Canada, India will have an opponent that boasts three top 100 singles players.
World No.10 Milos Raonic, the finalist at Wimbledon 2016 may lead the charge should he confirm his availability for the tie. Ranked 78 is Vasek Pospisil, who is also an avid doubles player. Just last week, 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov became the youngest ever player to reach the semi-finals of an ATP Masters, when he beat the likes of 2009 US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro and 15-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal. His rank subsequently jumped 78 places to 67.
The tie will be won or lost in the singles rubbers for India. Bhambri and Ramkumar’s involvement becomes all the more crucial since Myneni, who is likely to pair up with Rohan Bopanna for the doubles rubber, is short of match time. The 29-year-old got back to playing competitively only in July after a six month injury layoff.
This will be the fourth consecutive year that India has reached the World Group Playoff, but the first time that it will be an away tie – Canada will host the matches at the Northlands Coliseum, an indoor stadium in Edminton. “We are having a week-long camp before the Davis Cup week at an indoor facility at the Columbia University to get us accustomed to the conditions we might face in Canada,” Ali says. “All our singles players need to do is maintain their form and fitness.”
The crowd factor will remain crucial. Shapovalov beat Nadal in front of a capacity crowd at the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal. Bhambri and Ramkumar are confident, but playing against high ranked opponents, in front of a partisan crowd – that too over four rubbers – will be a tough challenge.
Absence of Vishnu Vardhan
Vishnu Vardhan was not picked for the Davis Cup team despite being in good form himself. The 30-year-old has won three Challenger doubles titles on the trot – one more than N Sriram Balaji who has been named as a reserve for the squad. Vardhan also features 10 ranking places above Balaji’s 133. “We picked Balaji because he had a good outing against Uzbekistan in the previous Davis Cup tie,” says Misra.
Vardhan meanwhile has been named for the Asian Indoor Games to be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan at the same time as the World Group Playoffs. He will lead the team that includes Sumit Nagal, Sidharth Rawat and Vijay Sunder Prashanth.
