The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Leander-Sunil pair keeps Indian hopes alive

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Sunday, Feb 11, 2007
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Sport - Tennis

Leander-Sunil pair keeps Indian hopes alive

NAMANGAN (Uzbekistan): His main soldiers may have fled the battle field, but Leander Paes proved `captain courageous', as he partnered Sunil Kumar to win the doubles against Uzbekistan on Saturday.

Leander and Sunil prevailed 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 against Farrukh Dustov and Denis Istomin in three hours and 14 minutes on the red clay, to keep the Indian hopes alive, in the Asia-Oceania group `I' Davis Cup tie at the Pahlavon indoor sports complex.

The top two Uzbek players had not dropped a set on the opening day in giving its team a 2-0 lead, as Cup debutants Vivek Shokeen and Karan Rastogi were unable to rise to the occasion. However, the Uzbek duo could not pull it off against the double Asian Games gold medallist Leander and the talented left-hander Sunil.

Emphasis on experience

The 33-year-old Leander emphasised that it was experience that counted when he picked Sunil to partner him, and he was also very keen to make sure that his two singles players would be fit for the climax after a day's rest.

If Karan, who has a 1-1 record against Istomin on the Tour, pulls it off in the first of the reverse singles on Sunday, Leander may not hesitate to put his reputation on the wire and go for the jugular in the fifth rubber, despite not having played singles for long.

"It would not have been the right thing for me to have played the singles on the first day, though I may have played better than Vivek. The idea is to build the team. Having said that, everyone knows that I am not the one to shy away from a challenge," Leander had said after the singles matches on the opening day.

For the record, Leander has a 1-0 record against Dustov, having tamed him in the first rubber on grass at Jaipur in 2005, when he conceded a mere two games in the last two sets after the first set had been taken to the tie-break.

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