Young India's Davis guns blaze away

Singles star Somdev Devvarman and doubles pair of Rohan Bopanna-Saketh Myneni outwit Chinese Taipei

Indore: Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni gave India an unassailable 3-0 lead against Chinese Taipei after clinching their doubles rubber in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Round 1 tie at the Indore Tennis Club here on Saturday.


India's Davis Cup team members pour water from an ice box on teammate Saketh Myneni after taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei. Pic/AFP 

Bopanna and Myneni won 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(2) against Hsien-Yin Peng and Hsin-Han Lee to put the Anand Amritraj-led team in Round 2 where they will take on South Korea April 4-6.

After being completely routed by the Indian combine in the first set, Peng and Lee came back to level the contest by winning the second set in the tie-breaker.

Myneni came out on top with his experienced partner to bag the third set easily and the fourth in another tie-breaker to take the home side to victory.


Somdev Devvarman 

Earlier on Saturday, Somdev Devvarman put India 2-0 up beating Ti Chen. Devvarman's match resumed in the morning after being suspended due to bad light on Friday at 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-2, 7-7.

The Indian took only a few minutes to finish off the last set 9-7 and go 3-0 up in career meetings against Chen. The 28-year-old played attacking shots and kept Chen at the baseline which aided him to break the visitor in the 16th game.

Devvarman managed to seal the deal on his seventh match point when he forced Chen to make an error, putting an end to the match fought over two days.

Yuki Bhambri had given India a 1-0 lead on Friday by drubbing Chinese Taipei No.1 Tsung Hua Yang 6-2, 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-3. In the dead singles rubbers today, Devvarman will play Yang while Bhambri will take on Chen.

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