Friday, Feb 06, 2004
Friday, Feb 06, 2004 |
| Sport | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Tennis
NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. India's fortunes in the Davis Cup will once again revolve around Leander Paes when he plays a crucial singles rubber against New Zealand on the opening day of the Asia-Oceania Group I first round tie in Invercargill, New Zealand, tomorrow. Paes, captain of the team, named himself as the second singles player and was drawn against Kiwi No. 1 Mark Nielsen in the second match in the draw today. Harsh Mankad, with an ATP ranking of 329, will kick-off India's campaign in the opening singles against Simon Rea (818) who will be making his Cup debut. With Mankad the odds-on favourite against the unknown Rea, and Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi expected to defeat Nielsen and Rea in the doubles match on Saturday, the Paes vs Nielsen rubber would decide the course of the tie. Paes, unranked, beat Nielsen 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 in Kolkata last April but has not played a singles match since then. The only tennis Paes has had since recovering from his brain lesion has been a first round defeat in doubles and a final appearance in the mixed doubles with Martina Navratilova at the Australian Open last week. But the `Miracle Man' of Indian tennis sounded confident ahead of the tie. ``I have done this many times. It is tough to put myself in this position but in the past I have had to win all three matches,'' he said. Paes also has the incentive of equalling Ramanathan Krishnan's record of most number of wins by an Indian in Davis Cup. Paes has a win-loss record of 66-29 including doubles victories while Krishnan ended with 69-28.
New Zealand captain Bruce Derlin agreed that stopping Paes was the key to the home team's chances. ``I already knew he was going to play - and that he's a good quality Davis Cup player,'' said Derlin. — PTI
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Tamil Nadu |
Andhra Pradesh |
Karnataka |
Kerala |
New Delhi |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2004, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
