Krishnan, Jaideep Win Doubles in Biggest Upset

MELBOURNE, DEC. 27. The Indians gloried in the Melbourne sunshine here today as India’s scratch doubles combination of Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaideep Mukherjea pulled off the biggest upset of tennis history in routing Wimbledon winners and Australia’s top doubles combination of Tony Roche and John Newcombe in four thrilling sets.

They won at 4-6 7-5 6-4 6-4 to reduce Australia’s lead in the Davis Cup Challenge round 2-1 and keep interest alive in this year’s Challenge Round till tomorrow.

About 11 thousand spectators witnessed Krishnan and Mukherjea, each of whom had been defeated in the singles yesterday, face a fresh Australian pair but the Indians showed no sign of fatigue.

The Australians gained first advantage by winning the toss and seizing the opening game on Newcombe’s service, without conceding a point.

Krishnan and Mukherjea could not find their best form initially and Krishnan in particular appeared to be unable to make the best use of his courtcraft.

Yet the games went with the service till the ninth game. The sixth game on Mukherjea’s service, was well contested. Mukherjea faltered a bit while volleying but Krishnan quickly retrieved the situation with fine rallies and baseline shots to win the game for three-all.

The ding-dong battle ended however in the tenth game when with Australia leading 5-4 Mukherjea could not hold his service and hit two easy volleys into the net to yield the first set to the home team at 4-6. 50 YEARS AGO IN