Sunday, September 17, 2017

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2017 - World Group Play-off, Edmonton, Canada

India vs Canada 1-2

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,154) bt Brayden Schnur (CAN,202) 57 76(4) 75 75
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,157) l Denis Shapovalov (CAN,51) 67(2) 46 76(6) 64 16

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 57 57 75 36

Indians failed to overcome the challenge of Canadians and lost in the four sets ... Now, RamK having Hercules task to beat in-form Shapo to keep Indian challenge alive after the fourth rubber ... About this match, Vasek Pospisil was the best player on the court ... He carried the team well and he helped legend Nestor a lot ... Purav was playing his first Davis cup tie so he was nervous but I felt, Rohan didn't help him much for coming out of it ... Canadians played as per their plan and put pressure on Purav's serve from the start ... They won the first two sets despite losing their own serve as they were breaking Purav's serve as per their liking ... In the third set, Bopanna-Raja saved match point and came back from a break down to win it ... But Canadian again took control and broke Purav in the fourth ... After that Canadian kept holding their service games to give important rubber point for the Canadian team.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nothing against Purav, but I do feel had differences been kept aside & Leander partnered Rohan,the result could have been different!

Jay said...

I doubt, as no chemistry between Lee and Rohan ... But if I think of the current team structure then I feel our captain (Mahesh) had an opportunity to take a strategic decision before the tie. He could have included Prajnesh, instead of Purav ... And on the first day, he played Prajnesh instead of Yuki against Shapo (keeping Yuki fresh) ... In the doubles, Yuki can be partnered Rohan (he is good doubles player) and again Yuki can play in the fifth rubber.

Anonymous said...

Appreciate your view point but i still feel there's nothing which can't be sorted out by discussion between Lee, Hesh & Rohan. Still clearly recollect the comeback Lee & Rohan made against Serbia in Bangalore. Correct me if i am wrong--But at that time Lee had opted out of a few Davis Cup ties & it was on Rohan's phone call that he agreed to participate & the result was one of the most remarkable comebacks in Davis Cup doubles! So I feel more than chemistry it is an ego problem. Hope better sense prevails & India like always does not suffer in the future!

Anonymous said...

Also 1 more interesting point about the team selection -- [Disclaimer--- Hesh along with Lee has been my all time favorite Indian sportsperson!] Last time when the controversy erupted, Hesh made a statement saying he prefers 3 singles players & only 1 doubles player -- this at a time when Lee was No. 2 Indian doubles ranked player & now when Lee is the not among the top 2 doubles player in India as per the ATP rankings-- Hesh conveniently retracts from his statement by including Purav & Rohan in the 4 member team--thus 2 doubles players in the same team when as u rightly mentioned above it should have been Prajnesh as Saki was not fully fit! Thus open & shut case of ego problems more than anything else!

Table Tennis News

At $70K ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open 2020 , Muscat, Oman [R32] Harmeet Desai (IND,87) bt Jeremy Hazin (CAN,164) 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-4,...