India received a huge blow ahead of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie versus the Korea Republic as the country’s No. 2 singles player Yuki Bhambri has not yet recovered from his ongoing elbow injury. The Delhi player will be replaced by the 21-year-old debutant Ramkumar Ramanathan while World No. 127 Saketh Myneni will be leading the charge in the tie to be played at the Chandigarh Club on grass from July 15-17.
The troubled elbow has limited the currently 149th ranked Yuki’s appearance to just a handful tournaments this year and has not allowed him to back up his wonderful run last year where he reached his career-high ranking of 88.
The injury flared up towards the end of last year while he was playing at the Hua Hin Challenger in November and even though he returned this season, he has not been able to continue playing since March. His best performance so far has been making it to the semi-finals of the Zhuhai Challenger that same month.
Saketh too has not been at this very best in recent times and had been grappling with a shoulder injury. The 28-year-old suffered a heartbreaking loss in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying this year.
The young Ramkumar, meanwhile, was the best Indian performer at the 2016 Wimbledon qualifying and the World No. 231 lost a tough two-setter to the higher-ranked Daniel Brands in the second round. That experience should definitely come in handy as the Davis Cup contest will be held on grass.
While Myneni and Ramanathan will be spearheading the singles campaign, the doubles challenge will be led by the Rio Olympic-bound team of Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes.
