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Tennis
By Nirmal Shekar
In the event, it was hardly a major surprise that India's 2003 campaign in the oldest international team competition ran aground in this quaintly charming city with a full day left for further skirmishes. As Martin Verkerk and John van Lottum came back from a poor start to beat Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 37 minutes at the Ijesshallen here on Saturday in the doubles rubber to give the Netherlands an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the World Group qualifying round tie, it was once again post mortem time for Indian tennis, a time that is bound to be dominated by one big IF and many minor Buts. If only a fully fit Paes had been here to lead the team from the front, so to say... Ah, there is surely a price to pay when Paes is not on the team. And it was paid by Ramesh Krishnan's side today, no matter that this side would take home some positive memories from Zwolle. India, then, has failed to get past the World Group qualifying round for the fourth year in a row. "We have to get lucky the fifth time at least,'' said Bhupathi. And Ramesh himself said, "We would be happy to have some home ties next year, they are more manageable.'' But there is a day left here and two abbreviated reverse singles matches to play. And Harsh Mankad will take Bopanna's place in one of them while Prakash Amritraj will be happy with another day out in the middle. Earlier, on yet another day of Indian summer weather — even oldtimers in this country cannot remember when last it was as warm as this year in September — Bopanna's debut in Davis Cup doubles started off rather well. With Bhupathi playing the left court, the 23-year old from Coorg settled down early enough and rather well. The confidence that comes from having stretched a top 15 player the full distance in singles on Friday clearly reflected in Bopanna's body language and his game in the early part of the match. For his part, Bhupathi, playing for the first time with Bopanna, approached the task on hand with the sort of composure that comes with experience and consistent success in doubles play. Both men returned serves well and did most things right from the back of the court and, quite often, from up front too. But as the match wore on, it was obvious that something was missing at the net — read that someone, if you wish. On the other hand, Verkerk and van Lottum were no world beaters. Cheered by a wildly passionate crowd in the made-to-order temporary stadium that is normally home to a flourishing cattle market, the two Dutchman played with a lot of verve and fighting ability. Bhupathi and Bopanna looked the better pair right through the first set, which they won on a break of van Lottum's serve in the seventh game, and for 95 per cent of the second too. Verkerk served as big as could be expected of him and van Lottum improved as the match went into the second set but Bhupathi and Bopanna controlled the rhythm of the match until, strangely enough, things fell apart in the 12th game of the second set. Until that point, the Indian pair had not faced a single breakpoint in ten successive service games. But from 15-40 on Bhupathi's serve in the 12th game, the tide turned as a van Lottum return winner helped the home side knot up the match. The pattern was pretty much the same in the third set. Neither side was troubled on serve until the 12th game. In fact, not a single game went to deuce and there was only one in which the returning pair picked up two points. Yet, when the Dutchmen stepped on the pedal on Bhupathi's serve in the 12th game, the Indian pair had no answers. Again it was a lovely low return to the server's feet from van Lottum that closed out the set. "They suddenly put more balls in play and the crowd got into it a little bit,'' said Bhupathi, a few minutes after the Dutch pair closed out the match breaking Bopanna's serve in the 10th game of the fourth set. The point is, this was a day when the Indian pair, for all their efforts, did not seem to have a Plan B. When Plan A did not work after the first set, they seemed clueless.
Losing debut for Prakash
Earlier on Friday, Sjeng Schalken beat the debutant Prakash Amritraj 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, which did little credit to the Herculean effort put up by Bopanna. Schalken, of course, never faced such a threat. It is not at all easy for a 19-year-old to wait long hours in the locker room ahead of his first ever Davis Cup match and Prakash might have been a touch nervous walking onto the court. But this was only part of the reason why Vijay Amritraj's first son was outclassed by Schalken. For, his Dutch opponent is far too solid and experienced a competitor and he simply ran away with the match from midway in the first set.
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