The much anticipated match between the Spanish Tennis maestro Rafael Nadal and India’s Ramakumar Ramanathan has not taken place, during Spain’s Davis Cup World Group Play-off against India at the DLTA this Friday, due to a stomach bug caught by the world no 4.
Left-handed French Open doubles champion Feliciano Lopez replaced the 14-time Grand Slam winner Rafa, who started off the first singles rubber against Ramakumar. India lost by 1-0.
The budding Indian tennis star Ramakumar was defeated by a 4-6 4-6 6-3 1-6 against world number 26 Lopez. The match went on for 2 hours and 26 minutes.
It saw another daunting effort of India’s Saketh Myneni going up against world No. 13 David Ferrer. Myneni got qualified in the US open, but was defeated in a 1-6 2-6 1-6 against rival Ferrer. Securing Spain a win of 2-0
Where Ramakumar kept the audience glued to their seat, it became a task for Myneni to keep up with the super fit Ferrer, as he returned the ball effortlessly, each time, every time in a one-hour 27-minute match. A humble 46 points were attained by Myneni, whereas the Spaniard won a total of 84 points.
Sources say that, if Rafa recovers soon enough, he is to play against Myneni in the reverse singles this Sunday.
India’s ace tennis player Leander Paes will make our Saturdays eventful, with a doubles play off.
The stomach flu got the better of the former world No. 1 Rafa and thus a surge of disappointment running through the spectators will we witnessed on the field.
It had an impact on the RK Khanna Tennis Complex’s crowd, since Rafa playing for the Davis Cup in India was a huge deal.
Nevertheless, India to still root for its champions and are still eager to look forward to the Davis Cup.
India had won against Korea with a 4-1 in their Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie while Spain v/s Romania dealt with the same margin in their Europe/Africa zonal tie.
India and Spain have combatted thrice so far in the Davis Cup with India being one point shy with the record of 1-2. The last time India played Spain was as far back as 1965 when they lost by 2-3.