The major difference between Somdev Devvarman and Jiri Vesley during their long tussle on Friday was the Indian’s serve. He served 20 aces and had a staggering 98% of his second serves landing in. That propelled him to a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win to level the tie.
It wasn’t that he was serving big but he was finding the right angles and the perfect spin to keep the ball beyond the left hander’s reach. With such powerful serving followed by 65 winners, he was only broken once.
He later credited his serve and said it was possibly the best serving days of his career. “I was serving pretty well. It was one of the best serving days of my career. It was nice,” said Somdev at the post-match press conference.
“I am very happy with the way I played. I was obviously nervous to begin with. little bit of the nerves eased because I knew I was not the favourite by any means and people did not expect me to win. So going in there with that kind of an attitude definitely helped me play more relaxed,” he added.
Despite the win and the 1-1 scoreline, he maintained that India remain the underdogs against the top ranked Czechs. “We are still underdogs. They are favourites in every match, expect for the doubles. Tomorrow we are the slight favourites.
“Other two matches on Sunday, they are again the favourites. But now the way both of us (me and Yuki) have played, we feel lot better about our chances and one match on one day, anything can happen,” he said.
In tennis, the matches are decided by few points or few games and Somdev said the game at 4-4 in the second set was crucial. “I don’t know if you guys noticed but 4-4 in the second set was a huge game. I saved a few break points then and served very well. I was aggressive in my play and that game could have made a lot of difference in the end.”
Given Vesley’s worn out condition, Somdev conceded that he won’t be surprised if the Czech’s did change the player for reverse singles with Radek Stepanek likely to be the leading candidate.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed the singles team for Sunday. So to come out and change something would not surprise any of us. In fact, they are pretty confident that we are not going to change anything in our line-up. But we are ready for anything. We can also expect a change in their doubles team also,” said Somdev.
Somdev admitted that the strategy was to extend the rallies and he observed that Vesley was worn out.
“I completely sensed it for sure because he wanted to get out of the long rallies. It was working for him that how well he was serving. It wasn’t possible for me to get a good a hit on the return. May be on his second serve I was a lot more successful but not on the first one, those were impossible to read.”
On the other side, Vesley said it was not normal that he was tired only four games into the match. “It was not normal for me to feel so exhausted after just 3-4 games. I think I failed to cope with the conditions,” said Vesley after the match.
Vesley said he would talk to the physios and the team to decide the course of action in order to be ready for Sunday’s reverse singles.