‘Matured’ Mankad ready for Istomin

Paes, the player with most singles wins in Indian Davis Cup history, chose Mankad and Prakash Amritraj to play the singles matches in the first round against China in Delhi in March.

Mankad, however, might run into a player, Denis Istomin, who had defeated him twice on the last two occasions they met in the ITF circuit. The Indian said he did not face any psychological barrier and was keen to avenge the losses. ‘‘He beat me twice in ITF tournaments (at Delhi 7-6, 7-6 and at Bangalore 6-3, 7-6) but now I have matured and am looking forward to playing him,’’ he said.

Mankad arrived from Nottingham, where he gave a creditable performance by reaching the doubles final with Mustafa Ghouse and the semifinals of the singles event of a $25,000 ATP Challenger event.

‘‘I played some good matches there … I feel I am in good nick,’’ he said. Mankad admitted that the surface for the tie, grass, posed a few problems for him. ‘‘It is not my favourite surface and it is a difficult to play on but I can adapt to it. I had little difficulty in previous tie against China at grass courts at DLTA (Delhi),’’ he said.

Karan Rastogi, the reserve player, sweated it out with Mankad and Amritraj. He said it was his third successive tie as reserve ‘‘but I am taking it as a learning experience.’’

Paes was expected to reach here by the evening and Mahesh Bhupathi would tomorrow. The Uzbeks, who arrived in Delhi last week, were busy toiling in heat to get accustomed to grass and soaring temperatures.