India’s hopes of making the Davis Cup Final 8 received a major jolt as both Dhakshineswar Suresh and Sumit Nagal squandered promising starts to lose their respective singles, leaving the visitors trailing 0-2 against Korea at the end of the opening day of their Qualifier tie at Olympic Tennis Court in Seoul on Friday (September 18).
Dhakshineswar lost the first match of his fledgling Davis Cup career when Korea’s number one player Soonwoo Kwon beat him 3-6, 6-3 6-4.
Kwon registered seven aces and an impressive 92 per cent conversion rate on first-serve points.
The onus to bring India back was on India number one Nagal but he also squandered a solid start to lose 6-2, 4-6, 5-7 to experienced Hyon Chung after battling for more than three hours.
Chung showed the temperament of a big player as he earned points when it mattered the most.
Kwon has not lost a Davis Cup match at home and that trend continued.
Now India need to win all three matches on the final day to advance to the knockout stage which has happened only twice in India’s history: in 2010 against Brazil at home and in 2018 against China in away tie.
India had managed to erase 0-2 deficit to win those matches.
In those contests, legendary Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi had pulled off the must-win doubles rubber and now N Sriram Balaji and Niki Poonacha have the huge responsibility to keep India alive.