Last year, Dhakshineswar Suresh was far from doing the kind of things he did for India in Davis Cup over the weekend in Bengaluru. Not even among the country’s top-five ranked singles players, he was part of the reserves in the squad and based in the US playing collegiate tennis.
The 6’5″ Madurai-born player, though, possesses a weapon not many can flaunt in Indian tennis currently: a big serve.
An inspired pick by non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal plucked Dhakshineswar out of the reserves and placed him on the forefront of India’s two significant Davis Cup wins in the last six months.
Against Switzerland in Biel last September, the team’s secret weapon, then ranked 626th, upset 155th-ranked Jerome Kym to set the foundation for a rare away Davis Cup win in Europe that earned India entry into the Qualifiers Round 1.
Against Netherlands in Bengaluru over the weekend, the team’s trump card was at it again, in triple the capacity this time. Now ranked 465th, Dhakshineswar first stunned world No.88 Jesper De Jong on Saturday, also featured in the doubles win with Yuki Bhambri on Sunday, and returned to clinch the decisive reverse singles beating world No.162 Guy Den Ouden. The 3-2 win against the world No.6 team promoted India to the second round of Qualifiers for the first time, from which eight will progress to the elite Finals.
Four matches, four wins. Davis Cup starts seldom get any better.
This, from a 25-year-old who isn’t even a full-time professional yet. And whose career took a turn after being nudged to shift to the American collegiate circuit by Somdev Devvarman, India’s former top-100 singles pro.
Training in Chennai at the Aspire Tennis Academy, Dhakshineswar had the genes to be a 6-footer, even though he wasn’t as tall yet in his teens. His height and raw potential was spotted by coach Rajeev Vijayakumar and mentor Devvarman, who asked him to work towards developing a facet of the game that would complement his build.
And so Dhakshineswar began developing his first strike, looking at videos of pros with similar gamestyles, including Australian Nick Kyrgios and American John Isner.
Frequent injuries, the Covid-19 pandemic and shortage of finances however meant his career wasn’t moving forward. That’s when Devvarman advised him to head to the US.
“Somdev made me understand how college tennis works,” Dhakshineswar told this paper in an earlier chat. “It gives you a solid base, amazing coaches and facilities, you get to play tournaments, and you also get an education.”
Enrolled in the Wake Forest University, Dhakshineswar began playing and training a lot more while also pursuing communication studies.
His team of coaches at Wake Forest included Tony Bresky, Devvarman’s former coach, and Brian Baker, a former singles world No.52. Playing tournaments week after week added the reps to his serve that was only growing in strength, and developed other parts of his game that continue to be work-in-progress.
He guided Wake Forest University to the NCAA Division I men’s team championship in May last year, and was selected among 22 US college players for direct entry into ATP Challenger events from July 2025 to 2026 as part of the ATP Next Gen Accelerator.
Based in the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem, Dhakshineswar will complete his graduation in May this year. He hopes to compete a lot more on the pro tour after that. Playing infrequently in it thus far, Dhakshineswar hasn’t had the kind of success there yet.
For India and its Davis Cup tale, though, his impact across the last two ties has been as enormous as his first serve.
“It’s a different feeling when you’re playing for your country,” Dhakshineswar told the media in Bengaluru. “You’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for the whole nation. I played some different tennis in these matches and I’m really proud of that.”