Spain made a clean sweep of the Davis cup tie in Delhi by winning both the reverse singles matches. But for couple of sets win in singles matches and one in doubles we fail to evince keen interest to the contest. The promise shown by the Indian youngsters did not reveal the right kind of spirit that makes Champions. Spain on the other hand did not strain the talent of Nadal as he watched from player’s box to guide the team to victory. The World group playoff win by Spain shows the winning ways and they are up to the task of facing lopsided crowd support and still win. Nada opted to play the tougher doubles match and win with fast serves and deft placements. Indian Tennis team under Leander Paes lacked the killer instinct and succumbed to the pressure applied by the Spanish team. Lopez played to a plan and Nadal clinched the doubles to achieve an unassailable lead. The reverse singles win ensured a white wash and the Indian team has to start from scratch from hereon.
The hope of making a match of it after the first day loss appears rather remote. Still Leander Paes and partner played well but could not counter the aggressive court play of Rafael Nadal and Mark Lopez in four sets. Making most of the unforced errors of the Indian pair, the Spanish combination ran home victors and the ticket to qualify for the next round. Indian team need to play as a team and the entry of new comers in the side spoil the hopes in the end. The failure of singles players on the first day spoiled our hopes and the team could not recover from the shock.
Attack is the best form of defence and Indian tennis players should follow this dictum if they really aspire to top stars in the tennis world. We let loose the opposition on day one and it was highly impossible to recover from a 0-2 down position. With doubles loss we were down and out at 0-3 and there was no escape route but to play from the lower level from hereon. The last day matches were really a formality as those were considered as dead rubber. Inspite of an unassailable lead, Lopez did make an appearance in the reverse singles also and that shows his physical fitness and the will to fight till the end.
Nickhil Mani
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
