The hot and humid conditions may have been discouraging, but not for the three-time champion team whose every member was wholehearted in expressing his commitment for the country in the Davis Cup campaign.
Advertisement
Today, Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek played with complete harmony and shut out the goodly crowd.
While Bopanna, ranked 13th in the world, took responsibility for the defeat by saying that he could have played much better, Paes said he was sharing 50 per cent of the blame.
Having run Serbia close in the last World Group play-off in Bengaluru – thanks to the inspiring performances of Paes and Bopanna who turned the tide from two sets and a break down after the opening singles rubbers had been lost and followed up by Somdev Devvarman – India has shown its ability to make a fight of it against strong teams. The last defeat had also come with Bopanna against Uzbekistan in an away tie in 2012.
The odd man out among the four on court – he did not even sport the Czech shirt but only the colours – Pavlasek was the match-winner as he volleyed brilliantly and more importantly overcame bouts of nerves with admirable poise.
“There were three great players and one youngster in the match and he stood out”. So I wanted them to play in the Asia Oceania Group. “It was a bad day at office for me and I think I put pressure on myself of being the favourites and it backfired”, said Bopanna after the match. The Indian raised the level of his game by several notches, spraying winners, a staggering 32, all over the court and ended up firing 11 aces in the first set. His net play was vulnerable and returns too high and long.
India saved two set points but that wasn’t enough as the visitors sealed the deal on their third chance, with the set lasting 52 minutes. That’s his style of playing. But at 2-2, Paes and Bopanna suffered a shock when they were broken as early as the fifth game.
The young Czech lost his serve immediately after that but Paes surrendered his won and Stepanek served out the Czechs to a 2-0 lead. Both Indians have found an ideal foil in the former top-ranked woman player in the world, Martina Hingis, the Swiss who seems to have found her second wind as it were.
Advertisement
Leander was again at the receiving end in the seventh and Stepanek served perfectly to bring the curtains down on the second set. “If we had broken them in the first set and had gone up 3-love we would have been sitting here with a different story”, Paes said during the post-match conference.
