The Spaniard broke the Indian teenager in his first service game and raced to a 4-1 lead, before winning the first set 6-3.
Advertisement
It was only after a dead rubber against Ukraine in 2013 that doubles specialist Lopez was asked by Spain to come out and play a singles game in order to give some rest to others under Delhi’s intense humidity.
However, according to his replacement Feliciano Lopez, who won 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in two hours, 25 minutes, it wasn’t a last-minute decision. And after losing the first set, Nadal and Lopez fought back to clinch the match 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-4.
Spain completed a 5-0 whitewash against India as Marc Lopez defeated Sumit Nagal 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and David Ferrer beat Ramkumar Ramanathan in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 in the Davis Cup World group Play-off tie at RK Khanna Stadium, here on Sunday.
Nadal’s early struggle with his game saw the visitors lose the first set after being broken twice by an inspired home pair who had the raucous crowd behind them.
Spain will look to finish off the tie with the victory in doubles on Saturday.
An error-prone Myneni, whose game was littered with unforced errors, made the job of the Spaniard easy. He then held his serve at love to win the second set and level the scores.
Both players managed to hold their serve in the initial stages. “I was serving at 150s and Rafa helped a lot at net and nerves made it hard for me but overall I leave with very good feeling of the match”. The crowd goes wild, he goes wild, he takes deep breaths to calm his nerves, and serves the set out.
Marc Lopez, who is placed 15th in the doubles ranking, complimented Nadal’s attacking style with his good baseline play.
The second reverse singles rubber was a lop-sided affair with Ramanathan failed to produce the same show as he did on opening day.
The Spanish star put pressure on Ramanathan’s serve to lead the game 0/30 at one stage before the Indian Indian hit a return long to concede the game.
“I will get it soon, I promise”, said Paes after the match.
Paes heaped praise on Myneni, saying that the youngster has it in him to be a Grand Slam victor.
Ramkumar did take the third set from his rival, but Lopez changed gears easily and sealed the issue with his dominating game in the fourth set.
Advertisement
Ramkumar took a medical time out during the third set, raising suspicion if he is buckling, did something that brought the house down by breaking Lopez in the eighth game.
