New Delhi, Feb 2: Hope quickly gave way to uncertainty, and uncertainty to reality. India’s Davis Cup campaign, in the absence of its top players, got off to a miserable start with the home side trailing 0-2 against South Korea at the end of the opening day of Asia-Oceania Group ‘I’ tie at the RK Khanna Stadium here on Friday.
Ranjeet Virali Murugesan, the No.1 player for India in the tie, produced a below par performance during his 1-6, 0-6, 1-6 surrender to Min-Hyeok Cho before a cramping Vijayant Malik conceded the match when trailing 4-6, 5-7, 0-3 against Suk-Young Jeong.
Rankings matter little in Davis Cup and one hoped the two debutants would get the adrenaline rushing and raise their game. It had happened in the past but not today.
The drums, the noisy chants and even the fluttering national flags waved by Leander Paes and company at the sidelines could not inspire a change of fortunes. Not even Sania Mirza’ pressence in the stands. Firepower was missing and nerves got prominence.
Ranjeet, after leading 40-15 in the first game, slipped to drop his serve and could never revive his game. He was tight in his movements, struggled to put the ball in play and made a rash of errors. Cho easily wore him down in a few odd rallies with fluent hitting and whenever Ranjeet clambered to the net, he was treated to some rasping passing shots.
Bad struggle
In fact, Cho only grew better with each point, partly due to his Indian counterpart, whose game simply fell apart. So badly did Ranjeet struggle that he could hold his serve only once during the match.
The solitary blemish in the unranked Korean’s game was when he dropped his serve in the fourth game of the first set. But he swiftly recovered to reel off 12 games before Ranjeet held in the fourth game of the final set. It served momentary reprieve. Cho didn’t give away anything afterwards and closed the set and match with a forehand crosscourt winner, dropping only two points on the way.
It put curtains on a painful viewing and shifted focus on 22-year-old Vijayant, who now had the responsibility to put the home team on even keel.
He indeed showed promise with his power-packed strokes. The boy from Panipat fought for each point and stretched Jeong several times in the match. He served with purpose, fearlessly engaged in rallies but his forehand proved to be his undoing. He dropped his serve in the fifth game of the match following two forehand errors and Jeong, quick on feet and solid on serve, sprinted to take the lead.
Egged on, Vijayant carried his attacking game to the second set. A scorching backhand down the line gave him three breakpoints but he couldn’t convert any. Not even the fourth opportunity that came after the two deuces in the game before throwing it all away with a poor backhand.
He dropped his serve in the 11th game to lag 5-7 and immediately asked for a medical timeout. On return, the Korean comfortably served out the set and the match.
Vijayant got broken straightaway in the third set and in the third game fell to the ground grimacing after hitting a backhand return. His exit wrapped up a forgettable day for India, who would look up to their doubles exponent Paes and another debutant Purav Raja to get them their first point in the tie and another day to fight.
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