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Bopanna-Bhupathi put India ahead

Kamesh Srinivasan

Istomin vows to give his best on Sunday

— Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Combining well: Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi proved quite a handful for the Uzbek pair of Farrukh Dustov and Denis Istomin.

NEW DELHI: Rohan Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi asserted India’s supremacy in the doubles on Saturday, but when they wound up the show in an hour and 29 minutes against the Uzbeks, the sizeable crowd might have longed for more entertainment.

On a bright sunny day, Bopanna and Mahesh played high quality tennis and combined well to outclass Denis Istomin and Farrukh Dustov 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to give India a 2-1 lead over Uzbekistan in the Asia-Oceania group I Davis Cup tie at the R. K. Khanna Stadium.

The 27-year-old Bopanna served and volleyed with tremendous assurance. He dropped only three points on his serve in the whole match till he faced three breakpoints while serving out the match in the 10th game of the third set. That was the only time the Uzbeks looked to be making a fight of it.

True to his form, Bopanna closed out the match with an ace.

“I tried to put a lot of first serves in, and with Mahesh at the net, it was easy. Probably I tried too hard in that last game. But, I am glad that we finished the match quickly,” said Bopanna, who had last played with Mahesh in Davis Cup in 2003, at Zwolle on indoor hard courts against the Netherlands.

The only other time that Bopanna had played doubles in Davis Cup was with Leander Paes at Almaty in Kazakhstan last year.

A class act

Of course, 10-time Grand Slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi was a class act. He had the crowd swooning with his patented return winners, sharp volleys and deft placements. The amusing part was that a charged up Mahesh went for an impromptu chest butt with Bopanna after a spectacular return winner on Dustov’s serve that gave a decisive 3-2 lead in the third set, but the latter was not prepared for it.

It was so easy for the Indian pair to catch the Uzbeks on the wrong foot that both Istomin and Dustov were often seen slipping and rolling on the court, unsure of their steps. Neither did their shoes have any grip on the surface, nor did the Uzbeks get hold of the match at any stage.

“We were confident of winning the match. Rohan has been playing very well for the last couple of months,” said Bhupathi.

“We had options but we went with the best combination for the doubles. It was an excellent fare,” said Paes.

The captain said that Bopanna had a great chance on the morrow to ride on the momentum and play his best to clinch the decisive point for the host in the fourth rubber itself.

“I am happy with my game and looking forward to closing this tie out,” said Bopanna.

However, Istomin warned that he would play his best in the tournament on Sunday, with the advantage of having watched Bopanna closely in the doubles match, and try to make it 2-2 for Uzbekistan.

If that happens, Prakash Amritraj, in the midst of a controversy about his fitness and the misinterpretation of his captain’s comments in the media, would have a great opportunity to come out firing against Farrukh Dustov, and prove that he is after all India’s best ranked singles player at the moment.

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