Swedes return rain volley with backhander

Wilander conceded that the doubles rubber — India’s strength — was important but said the singles matches would change the teams’ fortunes. And it would all depend on the behaviour of the newly-laid grass court at the R.K. Khanna Stadium.

‘‘I realise the court has been prepared to suit the home team but how true it will behave will be known only on match day. With grass, it is really difficult to make a good court in a week’s time. Even Wimbledon wouldn’t be able to do that.’’

His concern stems from the fact that their No 1 player, Thomas Johansson, is essentially a baseline player and that could be a handicap on this surface. ‘‘It all depends on how he would cope with the court conditions here. But I don’t expect him to play the serve-and-volley game because he prefers to attack from the baseline,’’ said the eight-time Grand Slam winner.

He could even joke about the weather, saying it must have come as an equally big surprise to the Indians. ‘‘It must have surprised you guys more than us,’’ he said with a smile, adding ‘‘we hope the weather holds.’’

Then Wilander, a hard task master, defied the fickle weather and put his players — Andreas Vinciguerra and Simon Aspelin — through a brief workout on the synthetic facilities at the DTA.

Jonas Bjorkman and Robert Lindstedt were expected to arrive tonight while Johansson, who lost to Guillermo Coria of Argentina in the China Open today, would arrive tomorrow night.

‘She hits harder than me’

Asked for his opinion of Sania Mirza’s tennis, Mats Wilander had this to say:

• She definitely hits the ball a lot harder than me, or even than most guys on the men’s circuit. She has got unbelievable ground strokes, she is a fighter and not afraid to go for her shots

• She has to learn the difference between what is to win and to not lose. There is a huge difference between beating the big players and losing to bad players.

• From now on it has to be a long term vision. It should be a matter of how much better she can be in five years. The focus should not be on winning or rankings.