Rejuvenated Indian side ready for bigger challenge in Davis Cup Play-offs

The 4-1 victory over Uzbekistan is just the beginning for this young and ambitious team under Mahesh Bhupathi.

India qualified for the Davis Cup Play-offs with a resounding 4-1 win over Uzbekistan in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group L tie recently. This second round contest was crucial for India under non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi.With Yuki Bhambri, one of India's top singles players, forced to pull out, Bhupathi was under pressure to deliver but he marshalled his troops with great leadership to hatch a decisive victory.

With three singles and a doubles player, the side was young, full of energy and hungry but a little inexperienced. On the first day at the KSLTA Stadium in Bengaluru, the singles encounters took place with Ramkumar Ramanathan beating Uzbekistan's Temur Ismailov 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 and debutant Prajnesh Gunneswaran beating SanjarFayziev7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to give India a 2-0 lead.

The second day saw the doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balajitake on Uzbekistan's Farrukh Dustov and Sanjar Fayziev. The versatile Balaji was the second player on the Indian squad to be making his Davis Cup debut but that did not stop the duo from trouncing the Uzbeks 6-2, 6-4, 6-1. Their aggressive performance was enough to give India an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie and qualification for the World Group Play-offs.

With the tie sealed, India could well have afforded to take their foot off the pedal but, to their credit, they went for a clean sweep. And they came tantalisingly close when Ramanathan beat Fayziev 6-3, 6-2 to take the score to 4-0, but their dreams were dashed after a fierce battle saw Ismailov subdue Gunneswaran7-5, 6-3.

Their win makes this the fourth successive year that India make the playoffs. They will now have to travel to Canada for an away tie from September 15 to 17. This might prove to be a tougher competition as the Canadian side is the higher seeded team but the Indian side is expected to be at full strength and will have a prime opportunity to distinguish themselves on the international stage.

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