AGENCIES
CHANDIGARH
Heavy rains on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning have cast a spell of doubt over the India- Korea Group I Davis Cup tie that gets underway in Chandigarh on Friday. With the forecast suggesting thunderstorms over the next couple of days, the teams have only but prayers on their mind.
In the instance of further rains, there's a provision for the tie to be extended by a day, which will see two singles rubbers and a doubles rubber on the same day. India would be hoping to wrap up the tie and march towards the World Group playoff.
One of the sub-plots to watch out for in the tie will be the chemistry between Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes. The duo will be playing for India at the Rio Olympics and this will be their only competitive match together before the Games. Bopanna in fact had asked to be paired with Saketh Myneni for Rio, who is also part of the Davis Cup team, but his request was turned down. The relationship between Bopanna and Paes has been the subject of much speculation but during practice they put up a cordial front.
The duo of Paes and Bopanna is scheduled to play Hong Chung and Yun Seong Chan on Saturday with the reverse singles slated on Sunday. "On grass the game is always more technical and I think we have an advantage. In 1993 we played a rain-affected tie against Switzerland, so we are used to such conditions. As a team we are ready," said Paes.
Ramkumar, who will be making his Davis Cup debut, has been drawn to play the opening rubber against Seong Chan Hong while Saketh Myneni will take on Yong Kyu Lim on Friday. "It's a good feeling to play on grass and we are hoping Ramkumar will give us an early lead," said Saketh.
Missing the services of experienced Chung Hyeon and Lee Duck-hee, Korea will be fielding a second-string team who look far from comfortable playing on grass. Though they arrived more than a week ago to accustom themselves with the conditions, the Koreans concede that grass continues to be a 'challenging' surface. "We are not used to playing on grass courts which is why we came early. We have not practised at the match court yet so that's a problem," non-playing captain Gap-Taik Ro said.
Korea last won against India 4-1 in the Asia/Oceania quarter-final in 2013. India, however, avenged the loss the following year with a 3-1 victory.
THE DRAW
Asia/Oceania, Group I
Friday: Ramkumar Ramanathan vs Seong Chan Hong, Saketh Myneni vs Yong Kyu Lim
Saturday: Leander Paes/Rohan Bopanna vs Hong Chung/Yun Seong Chan
Sunday: Saketh Myneni vs Seong Chan Hong, Ramkumar Ramanathan vs Yong Kyu Lim
