After his surprising loss on Saturday, leander Paes admitted that Czech Republic’s Adam Pavlasek made the difference in the match as the youngster rose to the occasion and didn’t buckle down under pressure.
“We were definitely the favourites to win this match. But I thought Adam played unbelievable today (Saturday). Right through the match, Adam did well to win the points. There were three great players and one youngster on the court today and that youngster actually shone,” said Paes in the post match press conference.
“Radek played well, very smartly but Adam really stepped up and played excellent today. It has been a hard day for us. We have lost to a team we should not have. A youngster who actually came out and played phenomenal tennis today,” he said.
Paes shared that there were discussions in the Czech camp to play lukas Rosol alongside Radek Stepanek because Rosol was barely pushed by Yuki Bhambri in the singles on Friday. But that plan was later changed.
“We were not quite sure who was going to come up today but when we saw Adam warm up, we were so fired up to go after him that maybe we went after him a little too fast and a little too soon. And he got his rhythm too quick,” he said.
“We came out with a strategy to obviously break him (Pavlasek) down and we almost did that. He was fragile in the first set, especially when serving for the first set at 5-4 and we managed to break him,” said the 42-year-old.
With the tie going into the deciding day and both Indian singles players needed to win their matches, Paes said it would be interesting to see how Jiri Vesley would fare given his fragile fitness level after Friday.
“What I saw from Vesley was not normal. I will be interested to see how he comes out. It will be very interesting to see how players handle the heat tomorrow (Sunday) and what their playing styles are going to be. If Yuki can keep Vesley on the court longer and longer, then it is a big chance we have to take the tie to the fifth match,” he pointed out.
Asked if he was sure that the Czechs would play Vesley again, Paes said: “No. But they will,” he added.