MUMBAI, January 23: Syed Fazaluddin (22) and Prahlad Srinath (24) forced their way into the Indian Davis Cup tennis squad for the World Group first round tie on clay against Italy in Genoa from April 3 to 5.The All India Tennis Association (AITA) selection committee - comprising Shyam Minotra (chairman), S P Misra, C P Kakkar, Davis Cup non-playing captain Jaideep Mukerjea and the three AITA ex-officio members, president (R K Khanna), secretary (Ramesh Desai) and treasurer (T Francis) - replaced the Kirtane cousins Sandeep and Nitin in a squad that is spearheaded by Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.While Fazaluddin (son of former India football coach Syed Naeemuddin) is a newcomer in the team, Srinath was a part of the side in 1995 against Sweden and Netherlands - a year in which he won the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games title.Minotra said Fazaluddin earned his place by winning the men's singles title in the ITF Futures at Chandigarh earlier this month - the first Indian since Paes to do so - beating Srinath in the final."Fazaluddin has been performing well in USA - he is studying in the Temple University in Philadelphia - where he is ranked No 1 among amateurs," Minotra added.Minotra said Srinath has been playing well and is ranked only below Paes and Bhupathi on the ATP Tour computer. "The tie against Italy will be played on clay, which is Srinath's forte. That was another factor which went in his favour while selecting the team," Minotra added.Vijay Kannan, a trainee with the Dharam Hinduja All India Tennis Academy (DHAITA) at New Delhi, is the reserve player for the tie. Jaideep Mukherjea and Enrico Piperno will be the non-playing captain and coach respectively while Sanjay Singh will be the physio.Other names which merited consideration in the selection committee meeting were Harsh Mankad, Vasudeva Reddy and the two Kirtanes.The committee also named the Indian women's squad for the Asia-Oceania Federation Cup qualifying rounds at Bangkok to be held from February 16-22.The team: Nirupama Vaidyanathan (TN), Uzma Khan (AP), Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) and Arati Ponnappa (Karnataka). Reserve: Sai Jailakshmy (TN). Non-playing captain: Nandan Bal.The US-based Manisha Malhotra, who finished runner-up to Uzma in the Duliajan Nationals, was not considered as she failed to reply to queries sent by the AITA asking her availability for the event.The committee also picked the boys' and girls' probables for the qualifying rounds of the NEC World (under-16) Youth Cup and the NTT (under-14) Cup tournaments to be held in May-June and named Vijay Kannan and Uzma Khan to represent the country in the World Youth (under-18) Games in Moscow in July.The various squadsWorld Group Davis Cup tie vs Italy (at Genoa from April 3-5): Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Prahlad Srinath and Syed Fazaluddin. Non-playing captain: Jaideep Mukherjea. Coach: Enrico Piperno. Physio: Sanjay Singh. Reserve: Vijay Kannan (Dhaita).For Fed Cup Asia-Oceania qualifying round (at Bangkok from Feb 16-22): Nirupama Vaidyanathan (TN), Uzma Khan (AP), Rushmi Chakravarthi (TN) and Arati Ponnappa (Kar). Non-playing captain: Nandan Bal. Reserve: Sai Jailakshmy (TN).For World (under-18) Youth Games in Moscow in July: Vijay Kannan and Uzma Khan.Probables for NEC World (under-16) Youth Cup Asia-Oceania qualifiers in May-June: Boys: Kamalakannan (TN), Akshay Vishal Rao (Chandigarh), Karan Doctor (Mah), Chandrasekhar Mohanty (Dhaita) and Benjamin Xavier (TN).Girls: Radhika Tulpule (Mah), Shruti Dhawan (Dhaita), Sonal Phadke (Mah), T Yamini (TN), Kameshwari Vadali (AP) and Lisa Pereira (Mah).Probables for NTT (under-14) Cup Asia-Oceania qualifiers in May-June: Boys: Parantap Chaturvedi (Dhaita), Sunil Kumar (Chandigarh), P Vishal (Dhaita), Rohan Gajjar (Mah) and AR Anand Kumar (AP).Girls: Megha Vakharia, Isha Lakhani, Latha Assudani (all Mah), Ankita Bhamri (Del), Sasha Abraham (AP) and Reedhina Parekh (Ben).
