Davis Cup: Ramkumar, Bhambri give India 2-0 lead

Bengaluru, March 4: India grabbed a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup Tennis World Group I play-off tie against Denmark at the Delhi Gymkhana Club on Friday (March 4) with Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan posting contrasting victories.

In the opening singles, taking full advantage of the Danish player's discomfort on the low bounce grass court, Ramkumar cruised to a 6-3 6-2 win over Christian Siggsgaard, ranked as low as 824.

There was hardly any fight in the match, that lasted just 59 minutes, as Christian made it easy for the 170th-ranked Indian with his unending unforced errors.

There was no end to Christian's struggle and Ramkumar finished the match with an ace in the eighth game after failing to convert four match points in the previous game.

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Yuki, playing Davis Cup for the first time since 2017, doubled India's lead with a 6-4 6-4 win in the second singles against Mikael Torpegaard, who, though served and stroked confidently to keep the Indian camp on edge.

Despite dropping his serve in the opening game, Torpegaard did not let Yuki seize the momentum. Whether it was stroking from baseline, serving, swift movement on both flanks or charging the net, Torpegaard did all to prevent it from becoming a one-sided affair like the first singles.

It was clear that India's strategy to host Denmark on grass courts worked well as tackling the low bounce indeed troubled the visitors.

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will now strive to seal the tie for India on Saturday (March 5) when they take court for the doubles match against Frederik Nielsen and Johannes Ingildsen.

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If they win, India will keep their place in the World Group I and the reverse singles will be rendered inconsequential.

"In Davis Cup, it's more about fighting than playing well. I fought well and hard today," Yuki told PTI news agency after his win.

"The match was always on my racquet, it was always in my control. It was a matter of stringing a few points together," he said when asked about scoreline changing from 4-1 to 5-4 in second set.

Skipper Rohit Rajpal praised both his singles players. "Yuki played at a high level. He was match sharp. Ramkumar too played with confidence. He was sharp in the first set. The idea was to keep it low and trouble them. The players executed the strategy well. We had planned to go up 2-0 and we did that," he said.

Ramkumar too was pleased with his effort. "I served pretty well, I was sharp. The team and fan support also made the big difference. I just had to stay with the ball and make returns. A few free points also did the trick," he said.

The two-day contest is the first between India and Denmark since September 1984, when the latter won 3-2.

Legendary Vijay Amritraj and former Davis Cup skipper Jaidip Mukerjea will be honoured during the tie for their contribution to Indian tennis.

India has been allotted a home tie after three years while Delhi is hosting Davis Cup matches after more than five years.