Italy ‘two’ good on grass as India stare at huge defeat
Tall ask for the hosts after Seppi and Berrettini down Ramkumar, Prajnesh to take 2-0 lead
Even ideal conditions weren’t enough to bridge the chasm in class between India and Italy. By the time lunch boxes were being handed out at the Calcutta South Club, the Italians were burping. Down 0-2 in this Davis Cup qualifier, India now have everything to do on Saturday and believe in captain Mahesh Bhupathi’s comment that “stranger things have happened.” It did that against China but, as Bhupathi pointed out, Italy are much better. So superior were Andreas Seppi and Matteo Berrettini that the crowd, on whose support many a Davis Cup rubber has turned, was mostly silent for three of the four sets here on Friday.
India’s only opportunity was in the first set of the first rubber. Leading 4-3, 40-30, Ramkumar Ramanathan failed to break Seppi. A good volley and a sliced crosscourt forehand put Seppi under pressure but Ramkumar released it by not attacking the second serve. He seemed indecisive at the net and when Ramkumar missed an easy backhand, it was all that Seppi needed to claw back into the game and shut the door.
“We had half-a-chance early in the first set of the first match and we didn’t take it. When you are playing players who have so much experience and are used to playing at this level, you have to take your chances. We didn’t. That’s where the momentum swung,” said Bhupathi.
In the next game, Ramkumar was broken and so were India. Two double faults -- he had six in all -- blighted an ace and Seppi seized the moment firing a backhand cross-court, following that up with a down-the-line winner, reading a drop shot and passing Ramkumar at the net. From the start of the second set, Seppi dictated terms. “I was returning well and that was the key,” he said.
Ramkumar was broken on love in the third game and the only point he won in the next was when Seppi double-faulted. Hope fluttered briefly when Ramkumar was 30-15 up in the sixth game but on his serve, Seppi reeled off three points to make it 4-2. Ramkumar was broken
again in the seventh game and 27 minutes after taking the first set, Seppi was serving for the match. Three minutes later, Italy were 1-0 up.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran didn’t have a sliver of hope. He was broken in the first game of both sets by a Davis Cup debutant who said he dreamt of this moment since he was a child and who, according to Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti, played like a veteran.
For a big unit, Berrettini moved well. The forehand he is famous for was unleashed in the rubber’s second point which came when Berrettini opened his shoulders to produce a crosscourt winner, the first of 16 he produced. Both served fast, one from Berrettini was 224kph, but in the Italian’s arsenal there is a slower service that once wrongfooted Gunneswaran.