The Hindu : Sport : South Korea wraps up tie

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 13, 2006

Sport

Sport

South Korea wraps up tie

Changwon : South Korea wrapped up the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie against India 4-1 with Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj failing to live up to expectations and losing their reverse singles matches on Sunday.

South Korea will face Taiwan, which beat Pakistan 3-2 in another Group I rubber, in the second round due to start on April 7. India now plays Pakistan in the first play-off after the sub-continental rival lost to Chinese Taipei 3-2 in another first round tie.

Hyung-Taik Lee took the unassailable 3-1 lead for the host by outclassing Bopanna 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 in the first rubber on Sunday, while Amritraj tried to salvage some pride against Woong-Sun Jun in the already dead rubber by coming back from behind to win the second set. But the Indian soon run out of steam and lost 3-6, 6-3, 5-7.

"I had a bit of a tough game at the beginning because Bopanna played powerfully but ... I was able to win the match with tenacity and lots of stamina," said Lee.

Paes's singles play missed

Coach Nandan Bal said the loss showed that India still relied on Leander Paes to win the singles matches.

"It is clear that one doubles point is not getting us anywhere. Having said that, Leander himself has another two years in him. We will have to look to him in the next two years, and hopefully by that time we will have a few players," said Bal.

Bal said that Paes did not play himself against Korea because the captain thought the youngsters, Bopanna and Amritraj, were in better form and shape than himself.

"It was just that he was not ready, he has never ruled himself out of playing singles. You must remember he played the opening match against Ubzekistan"

Bal also revealed that Harsh Mankad was not picked for the tie because the player did not make himself available for selection.

Good record

India has a 5-0 head to head record over Pakistan whom it played last in 1973 at a neutral venue, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, owing to the post-war situation.

The previous tie was hosted by India and the venue for the first round play-off would in all probability be decided by the toss of the coin.

``The bottomline is the awareness has grown in Asia. Pakistan beat Thailand in Thailand last year and came close to beating Chinese Taipei today", said Bal. — PTI, UNI

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