Davis Cup India: India’s start in Davis Cup 2021 was not good. In World Group One, India is trailing 0-2 in the match against Finland. On the first day of the match, both Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan faced defeat in their singles games. Ramkumar lost to a player of a lower rank than him.
In the opening match of the day, world-ranked 165th-ranked Prajnesh suffered a 3-6, 6-7 loss to bottom-ranked player Otto Wirtanen (ranked 419th) in a match that lasted one hour and 25 minutes on Friday. . Ramkumar Ramanathan (ranked 187th) put up a formidable challenge to Finnish number one Emil Rusuvuori in the second match but he lost 4-6 5-7 to world ranking 74th-ranked player.
Davis Cup India: Easy defeat for Ramkumar
India had a good draw with Prajnesh playing a lower-ranked player, but Wirtanen won an easy victory. Ramkumar made some efforts to overcome his opponent’s challenge, but he could not bring India on par. Prajnesh’s defeat was quite disappointing as he had a less experienced player in front of him who had won only one Davis Cup match before.
After losing serve in the sixth game, Ramkumar made a quick comeback playing cleverly. He surprised his opponent and collected good points. In the tenth game, he was trailing 0-40 on his serve to stay in the first set but lost it when a backhand shot went outside. In the second set, Rusuvuori gave a befitting reply to Ramkumar’s strategy and put up the pressure with some brilliant winners. Then both the players were tied at 5-5, but Rusuvuori strengthened his game and hit his strokes.
He got his first match point with a brilliant cross winner at 40-40, but Ramkumar saved it by keeping himself in control. But the Indian player soon made a double fault, giving Rusuvuori his second match point, on which he applied a backhand winner to give his team a 2-0 lead. Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will need to win the doubles match to keep the game alive.
India chased 0-2 after Prajnesh’s defeat.
Prajnesh saved two break points in the first set but lost serve in the sixth game and fell behind. Wirtanen won the set in the ninth game without any trouble. Wirtanen continued to put pressure on the Indian player in home conditions. Prajnesh reached a draw of 4-4, but in the ninth game, he went 0-40 down by a double fault. He saved five breakpoints and eventually earned points from the game with a drop shot.
Prajnesh needed to outdo his opponent on his serve in the 11th game. He also got a slight chance, but Virtanen accumulated the ace at the breaking point. Both reached the tiebreaker in which Prajnesh went down 0-3 to run 1-5. Prajnesh could not return the service shot taking an angle in the end, which earned the home player a match point. He won the match with the easy winner.
