India win easy, but questions over discipline remain
ON THE EVE OF SUNDAY’S REVERSE SINGLES, THE TEAM WENT OUT FOR DINNER AND DRINKS IN CHANDIGARH
PRO LEAGUE
7:50pm, Kolkata v Hyderabad; WOMEN’S CHALLENGE 9:00pm, Storm Queens v Ice Divas, liveonStarSports2,3,HD2 &HD3. ATP TOUR
1:30am (Tue), Washington Open, live on Sony ESPN & HD. The news report carried on Sunday incorrectly mentioned that India would play the winner of the Uzbekistan-China tie in the World Group play-offs in Davis Cup. India will play one of the first round losers of the World Group and the draw for the same will be out next week. CHANDIGARH: Rohan Bopanna replaced Saketh Myneni in the first reverse singles on Sunday. Myneni had not recovered fully from his draining match on Friday which had seen both players succumbing to severe cramping. Both the Korean players who had cramped on Friday had recovered.
Bopanna won 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 against South Korea’s Hong Chung in an inconsequential match with the tie already sealed in India’s favour.
On the face of it, Bopanna does not even have a singles ranking while his Korean opponent Hong Chung is 665 in the world. But given his huge serve and given that grass is his favourite surface, it was not imprudent to expect the world number 14 doubles player to prevail. Doubles, after all, is largely serve and volley. And grass, after all, is all about serve and volley.
But as the match wore on and he conceded two breaks in the very first set, it appeared that Bopanna was largely going through the motions.
BIG V SMALL
It was actually quite the small guy against the big guy contest. At 5’7” and 23 years, Chung has far less court coverage and experience than his 6’3”, 36-year-old opponent.
Down 1-4 in the second, the man from Bangalore did dig in his heels and came back to level the set. By then, Bopanna seemed to have shaken off the cobwebs and kept more balls in to wear down the nerves of the younger man across the net. Crucially, he stopped committing as many errors on serve. He came back to take the set 6-4 and then proceeded to pocket the next one also 6-4.
Bopanna had only learnt early this morning that he would be playing instead of Saketh. Later, after a short rain delay, Yong-Kyu Lim refused to allow Ramkumar Ramanathan to close out the second reverse singles and won 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (2). India won the tie 4-1.
GET DISCIPLINE RIGHT
The last time a doubles specialist was forced to play the reverse singles was way back in April 2008. Leander Paes was the captain of the team and the other members — Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj — were not his best friends. With the tie against Japan sealed 3-0 by Saturday, the three friends decided to have a night out and then the singles players chose to skip the reverse singles on Sunday. Paes and Bhupathi were forced to play the redundant singles. The bill for that night’s revelry was submitted NEW DELHI: Newly appointed India women’s hockey team captain, Sushila Chanu, feels a topeight finish in the Rio Olympics is a realistic target for India, ranked 13th in the world. They are grouped with Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and United States in Pool B, all ranked higher.
Chanu is optimistic about the chances. “We have a tough pool, but it all depends on how we play on a particular day. On our day, we can beat the best.”
However, India have not had ‘their day’ for most of the past three months. They lost their last three series, and eked out a solitary win over 18th ranked Canada. “I agree the past few tours were not very good. It is natural to go through slump in form. I think we played a lot better in Darwin (4-nation). We lost to New Zealand there due to two contentious goals. Against Japan, we conceded a last-minute goal,” the 24-year-old defender said.
TACTICAL CHANGES
Chanu felt the team must come out of the habit of conceding to tennis federation president Anil Khanna.
On Saturday night, the team went out for dinner and drinks in Chandigarh too. Having a drink after a hard fought victory needn’t necessarily classify as a breach of a player’s code of conduct while playing for his country, but one does wonder if it is necessary when some matches are still left over. Similarly, on the face of it, a player entertaining a girlfriend in the dressing room while his team mates struggle out on court may also be considered no big deal (the said incident took place in Bangalore, September 2014) but then just where does one draw the line? Much of this would have been anathematoteamsof anearlierera.
Present captain Anand Amritraj is a colourful guy and got his job as the players wanted him over the old-school SP Misra. But the way some of the discipline has been wavering, one does wonder if Amritraj really needs to put the friend bit on the backburner and implement some basic oldfashioned rules.
I agree the past few tours were not very good. It is natural to go through slump in form. I think we played a lot better in Darwin (fournation meet)