Tennis: Somdev geared up for Davis Cup tie

Bangalore - The refurbished KSLTA courts here received the thumbs up from Somdev Devvarman who will be leading Indian challenge against Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Davis Cup tie here this weekend.

“It is more like the Miami Masters and I love playing at altitude and we had our first session of hit today and we are happy with the conditions,” said Somdev who wasted little time on arrival here to get himself a spot of practice.

While stating the obvious that India should not under-estimate Indonesia, Somdev said he was keen to wrap up the tie without much ado.

Somdev, the 28-year-old who was ranked 64 in 2011 before a series of injuries pulled his ranking down to current 208, said he was in good shape after playing on the US circuit prior to flying in to Bangalore.

“It is great to play the top player in the world and I always loved competing against top 10 players and it does lot to your confidence if you play well against them,” said Somdev on his recent match with World No.1 Novak Djokovic.

Somdev was in the eye of the dispute between the players and the All India Tennis Association that led to the top stars staying away from February’s Davis Cup tie with Korea.

On the upcoming players association meeting here, Somdev said that it would take up issues pertaining to the betterment of players and tennis in general in the country.

Meanwhile, all the top four players – Leander Paes, Somdev, Yuki Bhambri and Sanam Singh had a work out on the court and took time off to play little bit of cricket as well on the court before a sharp shower cut short the schedule.