The pull-out of Rohan Bopanna from India’s Davis Cup squad against Norway comes as a huge blow to country’s chances at the premier event. The All India Tennis Association replaced him with the Arjun Awardee and Gold medalist at 2014 Incheon Asian Games, Saketh Myneni where he partnered with the veteran tennis player Sania Mirza in mixed doubles.
While the void of Rohan cannot be filled, coach Zeeshan Ali feels that the addition of Saketh will help to a certain extent in compensating for the huge loss.
“Well, we obviously going to miss him in the team because Rohan is much experienced player and has played a lot of ties for India. We were relying on him as far as the doubles was concerned. But then having said that and done, we at the same point got lucky enough to have Saketh Myneni to play instead of him. He was available in Europe at the same time. Captain Rohit Rajpal got in touch with him and he agreed,” Zeeshan during an exclusive chat on Davis Cup special programme powered by Dafa News on ITV Network.
“Both Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni as we know have been playing good in doubles recently, have been playing lot of tournaments and doing well, and Saketh just made it to 100 in top ranked Doubles players in the world. So, it’s a good replacement, considering though at the very last minute. Definitely, Rohan is going to be missed but we just hope who so ever decides to play doubles in place of Rohan plays well and help us win doubles,” Zeeshan further said. Rohit Rajpal, the Indian Davis Cup Team Captain also had his say on the way things panned out and said, “Just before we were leaving, I got a call from Rohan informing me that after two years of matches that he has played, his knees have got a bit of inflammation. Physios have advised him not to strain his knees for 3 weeks, that’s why he couldn’t be the part of this tie anymore.”
“Of course, it’s a great disadvantage. As we know Rohan is in very good form. Earlier this year he was in the semi-finals of the French Open. So, I am a bit disappointed that he is injured just before an important tie for us. Rohan’s inputs are also very valuable when he is around in the matches. However, this is the part of the game,” Rohit concluded.
On Saketh Myneni’s joining the squad as the replacement of Rohan, Rohit Rajpal elaborated “Saketh himself is a very big serve. Along with Yuki Bhambri in doubles he has won three or four tournaments. He is doing extremely well since last few weeks, won seven tournaments or so. We hope that he will do well this time also and we have high expectations from Saketh.”
The Indian team is scheduled to play the tie in Lillehammer, Norway on September 16 and 17 for a chance to make it to the World Group Qualifiers. A win for India in the upcoming tie will take them to the World Group Qualifiers, but a loss means they’ll have to fight to stay in Group 1.