A ray of light after dusk
Bhupathi-Bopanna overcome stiff challenge from Japanese pair.
India kept alive their hopes of staying in the elite Davis Cup World Group as Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna scored a hard-earned 7-5 3-6 6-3 7-6 3 win over Yuichi Sugita and Tatsuma Ito in the marathon doubles rubber in the play-off tie against Japan here on Saturday.
Rattled by the opening days singles defeats,India went in with experienced players,leaving out Vishnu Vardhan,who was initially named to play the doubles along with Bhuapthi. India are still trailing 1-2 and need to win both the reverse singles on Sunday.
Although both Bopanna and Bhupathi play the left court,the Indian captain did not want to risk fielding Somdev,who encountered a shoulder problem during the opening match against Sugita,on Friday. Sugita and Ito do not feature in even top-450 in the doubles ranking chart but they tested Bhupathi 6 and Bopanna 14 to limits,forcing them to come out with their best effort as the match lasted three hours and six minutes.
Indians played well only in patches while the Japanese were all fired up and gave their best. Ito specially,served extremely well while Sugita never failed to raise his level when his team required him to do. India nosed ahead in the opening set on Sugita serve when Bopannas forehand winner earned them third breakpoint and Bhuapthis backhand winner converted it in the third game.
India let go the advantage of initial break as Bhupathi was broken in the eighth game,which allowed Japan to level the score 4-4 and then failure to convert three breakpoints put the hosts ahead 5-4. However,India managed to break Sugita in the 11th game and Bhupathi served out for the first set.
Bopanna lost his serve in the sixth game and the hosts went ahead 4-2 and restored parity in the match by claiming the second set. The Indians woke up and raised their level by a few notches and claimed the third set by breaking Sugita twice even as Bhupathi surrendered his serve in between. The hosts opened up a 4-1 lead in the fourth set by breaking Bhupathi early again. India saved a set point on Itos serve in the ninth game and then,after squandering two break chance,converted the third to reduce the trail margin to 4-5. Eventually the set went into the tie-breaker,in which the Indians prevailed,using all their experience.
Somdev doubtful
Meanwhile,Somdev is still doubtful to play the first reverse singles in the play-off tie against Japan due to a shoulder injury and if he misses the tie,Vishnu Vardhan will have to play the must-win tie against Nishikori. Somdev underwent an MRI and the extent of the injury is still unknown. We are still waiting and I will be able to decide only after seeing the reports. He had inflammation and pain which affected his performance against Sugita. He could not play aggressively, Indias non-playing captain S P Misra said.
Serbia,France stay alive
Serbia and France kept alive their hopes of a rematch in the Davis Cup final by dominating must-win doubles matches to trail 2-1 in their respective semifinals. Defending champion Serbia is hoping that Novak Djokovic will be fit enough against Argentina in the reverse singles on Sunday.
Spain and Argentina both swept Friday’s opening singles matches,but neither came close to finishing the job in the doubles. French duo Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra were never troubled as they routed Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 6-1 6-2 6-0 while Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic and Viktor Troicki beat Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco 7-6 4 6-4 6-2.
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