Looking back at India's five previous performances at the Davis Cup
With the US Open coming to an end, all eyes will now be on the Davis Cup as the semi-finals will commence in a few hours. Top seeds and defending champions Great Britain take on sixth seeded Argentina while fifth seeded France lock horns with Croatia. India will take on mighty Spain consisting of Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fernando Verdasco in New Delhi in order to book a place in the World Group of next year’s Davis Cup.
India will be looking to make it to the World Group for the first time since 2011 and their 14th year overall. India’s best performance at the Davis Cup has been runners-up finishes in 1966, 1974 and 1987. With only a few hours to spare before India take on Spain, let’s take a look at India’s outings at their previous five Davis Cup appearances.
#1. 2011 Davis Cup- World Group: Round-1
After a 3-2 win over Brazil in Chennai at the 2010 Davis Cup World Group Play-offs, India secured a berth in the World Group of the 2011 Davis Cup where they were drawn against a tough Serbian side consisting of doubles veteran Nenad Zimonjic alongside Janko Tipsarevic, Viktor Troicki and Ilija Bozoljac.
In the opening match, Rohan Bopanna put up a tough fight against Viktor Troicki but lost to him in five sets. However, Somdev Devvarman levelled the scores by pulling off a surprise victory over Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets.
In the doubles match, the Indian team were without Leander Paes but the young duo of Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman won the first set but their Serbian counterparts Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac bounced back to take the next three sets and subsequently put Serbia 2-1 ahead. Viktor Troicki confirmed Serbia’s passage into the quarter-finals by beating Somdev Devvarman in straight sets before Tipsarevic thrashed Karan Rastogi to give Serbia a 4-1 win.
Serbia’s journey eventually came to an end in the semi-finals where they were beaten by eventual runners-up Argentina and India now had to play the World Group Play-Offs to book a place in the World Group of the 2012 Davis Cup.
In the World Group, India were drawn against Japan. The Japanese began strongly and won the first two matches with Yuichi Sugita beating Somdev Devvarman in straight sets and Kei Nishikori beating Rohan Bopanna, also in straight sets. The Indians pulled one back when the doubles duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna beat their Japanese counterparts Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita before Nishikori took Japan to the World Group of next year’s Davis Cup by beating Vishnu Vardhan in straight sets. In the final match, Rohan Bopanna eventually retired against Go Soeda after being 5-4 up in the first set, thus handing Japan a 4-1 victory.