Future looks bright for India, says Laender Paes
The thirty seven year old Indian tennis sensation, Laender Paes has carried the tennis of his country on his shoulders for the last two decades. The Calcutta born Paes however was extremely proud of his Indian side who surprisingly
came back in the Davis Cup tennis competition 2010 versus Brazil at the SDAT Nungambakkam courts on Sunday.
The United States Open doubles runner up; Rohan Bopanna who is considered the eternal underachiever of Indian tennis, at last joined the party after Somdev Devvarman had set it up with a tremendous exhibit versus Thomaz Bellucci
who is ranked number twenty seven in the world by the Association of tennis professionals (ATP). Although there is no doubt about the fact that Thomaz defaulted after the opening set, Devvarman had run him ragged and finally the sun got the better of him.
However, this one will always be recalled as Rohan’s tie. One, for the fact that the Indian tennis ace, managed to stretch Thomaz on the opening day, which took a lot out of the professional tennis player from Brazil, and then
battling the clash of his life during the fifth rubber.
Paes, who has done exactly this on a variety of occasions in his career, the previous time being against Aqeel Khan from Pakistan back in 2006 in Mumbai, felt this victory was the best one out of all of them.
"It was undoubtedly one of the finest Indian victories I have ever seen on the tour. I don't have the words to praise the way how Bopanna and Som battled for their country. Both of them showed some brilliant display of the game
of tennis and were in total control of the game right from the start of the match. They looked very confident on the court,” said Laender.
This is the very first occasion that the Indian side, which made its debut in the Davis Cup tennis competition back in 1921, bounced back from a deficit of 0-2 to triumph 3-2.
The Indian tennis legend is of the view that this is one of the best Indian teams he has ever played for. The young players are highly motivated and are fully aware of the fact that handling the pressure in difficult situations
is the key to success. Moreover, with him and Mishra-sir to support them, the future in his opinion does look quite bright for the Indians.
Everything's looking all rosy now but this was not the case just two days ago on Friday evening, when India was defeated in two tight clashes. Paes and Mahesh got them back on track the following day. Bopanna and Somdev took full
advantage of their victory and didn’t miss their chance on Sunday.
"I had no problems what so ever with the sun in my todays match as I have grown up playing here under this heat and I am quite familiar with the conditions. I am glad that we took our chances. I played and changed my game strategy
according to the situation of the game. I applied aggressive technique for most of the match in order to keep an opponent of Thomaz’ calibre at bay,” said Somdev after the match.
It shortly panned out the way the Indian wanted it to. The humidity along with the sun started getting the better of Thomaz as Devvarman got him involved in some back to back rallies.
Now that the Indians are in the World Group once again, the actual test starts, and all the Indian contenders apparently gave the impressions that they are all prepared for the worlds best tennis sides.
"We have always believed in our talent as we belong to the elite. Therefore, there is no reason why we can’t take this ahead,” added Paes.
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