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Islamabad, February 3
India blunted Pakistan’s challenge on the opening day to take a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup World Group I playoff tie with Ramkumar Ramanathan and N Sriram Balaji rising to the occasion in the high-pressure contest here today.
This will go down as a special win for me given we are in Pakistan. It is not easy to win away — Ramkumar Ramanathan
A fired-up Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi gave his all in a tight opening singles but the intensity of the match and tough conditions took a toll on him as he suffered a hamstring injury in the third set, which prevented a close finish to a hard-fought contest.
Ramkumar served extremely well in the match and also returned better in the second set to prevail 6-7(3) 7-6(4) 6-0, while the 43-year-old Aisam served 10 double faults in the match, going for broke.
Ramkumar’s strong serving and percentage tennis was key to the outcome of the match. He served nine games at love, keeping the points short and crisp.
Down by a set, Ramkumar wriggled out of a tough situation when serving at 3-4, he was down 15-40 and never looked back as he fired 20 aces.
Balaji, a doubles specialist, was challenged by Aqeel Khan, but the Indian defeated the veteran Pakistani 7-5 6-3 in the rain-hit second singles.
India are one win away from advancing to the World Group I. Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni will now look to seal the tie tomorrow when they take on Muzammil Murtaza and Barkat Ullah in the third match.
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