India face tough task against Canada
India will have to travel to Canada for a tough Davis Cup World Group Playoffs encounter with the host nation in September this year. This is the first meeting in the team competition between the two countries and Canada, ranked higher and the seeded team, got the right to host the match through draw of lots.
Mahesh Bhupathi’s India had defeated Uzbekistan 4-1 in Bangalore over the weekend to reach the playoffs round for the fourth successive year and the Indians would be happy to have avoided higher seeded countries like Argentina, Germany and Czech Republic in the draw conducted in London on Tuesday. Last year in the playoffs, India had lost 0-5 to Spain, which went on to reach the quarterfinals, losing to Novak Djokovic led Serbia 4 1 Great Britain 3-2 in the World Group Round 1 in February when Denis Shapovalov was automatically defaulted after he hit the chair umpire with an errant ball No 6 Milos Raonic, Vasek Pospisil (ranked 119) and Peter Polansky (127) besides the 17-year-old Shapovalov (172). Raonic has not played Davis Cup since 2015 He Britain due to an injury.
India is expected to be at its full strength for the tie with the injured Saketh Myneni and Yuki Bhambri joining Ramkumar Ramanathan for singles action.
Indian tennis fans will be keeping an eye on how non-playing captain Bhupathi goes about picking his four-man squad in the light of the controversy in Bangalore when long-time estranged doubles partner Leander Paes accused him of bias.
Canada’s singles players are all ranked higher than their Indian counterparts as of now and therefore in such a scenario putting up a strong doubles combination could at least keep the Indian hopes alive going into the third and final day of the tie.
Bhupathi will also have to take into account the fact that the September tie will be played a week after the US Open and his top doubles players may be tired if they
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