“I always love playing here and in these conditions I took advantage of the slower court, a place where I have played so many times”, added Devvarman, who extended his Davis Cup win-loss record to 14-11.
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“I was serving pretty well”.
Vesely said he realised something was wrong with his fitness three or four games into the match. It helped me play more relaxed.
“I was obviously nervous to begin with”. “I was a bit nervous but my nerves were eased up knowing that I’m not the top-ranked player from India”.
Devvarman, ranked 164, thrived in the sweltering heat and humidity at the R. K. Khanna Stadium in New Delhi as he notched up a 7-6, 6-4 6-3 win against the world number 40 in the second singles match.
The absence of World No 5 Tomas Berdych, an experienced Davis Cup campaigner for the Czechs, would do little to assuage the worries of Yuki and Somdev. I had a good last week and the conditions were sort of similar. The intermittent breeze and cloudy sky made the weather conditions quite tolerable with temperature remaining between 31 and 34 degrees Celsius.
But Vesley said “something was not right” with him today as he felt exhausted after 25-30 minutes.
However, Somdev insisted that India were still the underdogs. They are favourites in every match, expect for the doubles. Other two matches on Sunday, they are again the favourites.
On how he prepared to play against Yuki, who he had never faced before, Rosol said: “I saw a couple of his matches on youtube and just observed how his opponents were tackling him and I just copied that”.
Asked about his flat and furious ground strokes, Rosol said: “I wanted to hit everything deep and Yuki had no answer to it. So that was the tactic I used”. So to come out and change something would not surprise any of us. But we are ready for anything.
The Czechs boast of much pedigree and experience in the singles with Rosol and Vesley expected to be tough nuts to crack for Yuki and Somdev.
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Vesely served well but once Devvarman started getting down for the low pick-ups, running down the drop shots and countering them with craft, and playing some loopy drives, it was evident that the Czech was going to be pushed around the court.
