The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Prakash Amritraj growing in stature

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Prakash Amritraj growing in stature

Special Correspondent

It was awesome stuff from Prakash though we were 1-0 up. He served strong and played solid: Leander

JAIPUR: Prakash Amritraj is fast maturing into a quality performer, and if you take the hint from captain Leander Paes, the 21-year-old has a bigger role to play in the Indian Davis Cup squad in future.

After his brilliant performance against the Chinese last month when he conceded a mere 25 points in five sets in his service games, Prakash showed how much he loves to hustle and tease his opponents on grass.

"After being broken in the fifth game, Mahesh in the captain's chair told me that I didn't need to worry and had to just cut down the errors," said a beaming Prakash.

"It was an advantage going in 1-0, but once you hit the first ball, you don't think about anything," said Prakash Amritraj.

Leander said that he was pleased to see the big jump in Prakash's mental strength. "I think it was awesome stuff from Prakash, even though we were 1-0 up. He served strong and played solid after dropping serve early in the first set," Leander said.

Crafty opponent

Denis Istomin conceded that it was tough to cope with a crafty opponent on the misbehaving centre-court, which was so different to the practice courts.

The Uzbeks laughed away their chances in the rest of the tie, and Farrukh Dustov said in a lighter vein that the only chance his team had was if somebody in the Indian squad broke his leg.

Leander said that he was ready for the reverse singles and that he was not too perturbed about handling the Uzbeks in the doubles on Saturday with Mahesh Bhupathi, as the duo had a rich record accumulated from some of the biggest stages in the world.

"Actually, I think Prakash can play very good doubles for the team in the long run, especially on the left court as he has a solid double-fisted backhand. I cannot continue for ever, and we have someone ready to take the load of handling the responsibility on all the three days in Davis Cup," said Leander.

"It is an honour for me to represent the country. The bigger the challenge, the better I rise to the occasion," said Prakash.

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