Davis Cup tennis: India on the ropes against Finland after back-to-back losses
With Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan losing to Otto Virtanen and Emil Ruusuvuori, respectively, India trail Finland 2-0 in the Davis Cup Group 1 tie.
The Indian tennis team has its back against the wall in their Davis Cup Group I tie against Finland after both Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective singles matches on Friday.
While Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who is the highest-ranked Indian men’s singles player at 165, suffered an upset 6-3, 7(7)-6(1) defeat to world No. 419 Otto Virtanen, Ramkumar Ramanathan went down against 6-4, 7-5, against Finland’s top draw Emil Ruusuvuori.
In the opening rubber at the Espoo Metro Areena, the 31-year-old Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost the first set after giving away his serve in the sixth game but put up a much-improved performance in the tight second set.
Both players held their serve till 6-6 and forced a tie-breaker, in which, the 20-year-old Finn broke Prajnesh three times to go up 7-1 and give Finland a 1-0 lead.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, the world No. 187, also succumbed in straight sets in the second match of the day.
Up against 22-year-old Emil Ruusuvuori, ranked 74th in the world, the Indian made a good start with a breakpoint in the first game but the Finn bounced right back and won the first set comfortably by a 6-4 margin.
The second set saw both players go toe-to-toe through the entirety before Ruusuvuori clinched it right at the end after breaking the Indian in the 12th game.
The two losses on the opening day puts India firmly on the backfoot in the best of five series. India now need to win all their matches on Saturday to win the tie.
On Day 2 of the Davis Cup, Rohan Bopanna (ranked 44) and Divij Sharan (ranked 86) will pair up against former doubles world No. 1 Henri Kontinen (currently 46) and the 76th-ranked Harri Heliovaara in the men’s doubles.
Prajnesh and Ramanathan will reverse their opponents from the first day as Prajnesh goes up against Emil Ruusuvuori while Ramanathan takes on Otto Virtanen in the fifth rubber.
A win in the five-match series will see India make the qualifiers for the next Davis Cup edition in 2022 while a loss will see them drop into the play-offs zone of Group I.