Davis Cup: Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sumit Nagal trample Pakistan to help India take lead 2-0

As these scorelines suggest, India enjoyed a dominant opening day against Pakistan in their Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup encounter on Friday.
Indian tennis star Ramkumar Ramanathan (Photo | PTI)
Indian tennis star Ramkumar Ramanathan (Photo | PTI)

CHENNAI: Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Muhammad Shoaib 6-0, 6-0. Sumit Nagal bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman 6-0, 6-2. 

As these scorelines suggest, India enjoyed a dominant opening day against Pakistan in their Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup encounter on Friday.

This was always going to be a mismatch. That much was clear from the available information. India’s leading singles players are regulars at Challenger level, apart from odd appearances at Majors.

While Nagal recently enjoyed an outing against Roger Federer in US Open, Shoaib and Rehman don’t even have an ATP World Tour page in their names.

Ramanathan took 42 minutes to double-bagel Shoaib. The 17-year-old, making his Davis Cup debut, was so inferior that he could win only eight points in the first set. His serve malfunctioned and the dream was over before it began. There was marginal improvement in the second set. Shoaib won 12 points and got 43 per cent of his first serves right, but Ramanathan had too much in his tank.  

“I gave my best in every point,” the Indian said. “We are happy with 2-0 on the first day. Now we are looking forward to see Jee (Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan) and Leander (Paes) fire some bombs tomorrow (Saturday).” 

The second match was also on expected lines but Rehman put up more resistance. After another bagel, Rehman, a debutant, got on the scoreboard in the second set. Nagal, though, tightened up the game to walk away with minimal fuss. 

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