World No. 10 Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni suffered a shock straight set mauling at the hands of Artem Sitak and Marcus Daniell as India were left trailing 1-2 against New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Davis Cup Group I tie, on Saturday.
Bopanna, a Wimbledon semifinalist in doubles, and Myneni lost the crucial doubles rubber 3-6, 6-7(1), 3-6 even as the hosts continued to surprise the Indians. It is also the first defeat for Bopanna and Myneni as a team in Davis Cup as they had won their matches against Korea and Chinese Taipei.Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri will now have to win both the reverse singles on Sunday if India are to advance to the World Group play-offs.
It all depends on Somdev to keep hopes alive for India. He faces Jose Statham and if he loses, India will have to fight it out with China to stay in Group I. Yuki is set to clash with Michael Venus, with whom he had qualified for the Australian Open men’s doubles last year. The big-serving Indians blinked first when Bopanna dropped his serve in the sixth game of the first set. It handed a 4-2 lead to the Kiwis and they served solid, eventually Sitak closed the set in home team’s favour in the ninth game.
Bopanna and Myneni had a little opening to get a breakthrough in the fourth game of the second set but squandered both the break chances. Sitak and Daniell did not offer any chances to the Indians after that and it came down to the tie breaker. The Kiwis logged one point after another and outplayed the Indians in the tie-breaker, racing to a 7-1 win. Falling behind by two sets, the Indians needed to play out of their skins but they did no good to their cause as Myneni lost his serve in the second game of the third set. The Kiwis were soon leading 3-0 and Bopanna found himself serving to stay in the match.
Kiwis played flawlessly: AlI
Bopanna and Myneni were done in by some “flawless” tennis played by the Kiwi players according to India coach Zeeshan Ali but the team remains optimistic of winning the Davis Cup tie.“The Kiwis played absolutely unbelievable tennis,” Zeeshan said.“We had just two break points in the entire match. And twice love-30 on their serves, Apart from that they played flawless tennis,” Zeeshan added.