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World No. 263 Prajnesh Gunneswaran turned out to be the hero for India as he helped his team secure a 3-2 comeback win over China at the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie held at Tianjin, China on Saturday. The 28-year-old put up an authoritative display to pummel the reigning junior US Open champion Wu Yibing 6-4, 6-2 in just 1 hour 5 minutes.
With this triumph, India now advance to the World Group Play-offs along with Uzbekistan from the Asia/Oceania zone.
The win had looked improbable at one stage after India started the campaign on a disastrous note. Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sumit Nagal both lost their singles rubbers in straight sets in brutal weather conditions that saw India trailing 0-2 at the end of Day 1.
While Ramanathan succumbed to the 18-year-old Yibing 6-7(4), 4-6, the 20-year-old Nagal was beaten 4-6, 1-6 by Ze Zhang.
Paes and Bopanna set the ball rolling for India
It was all left to the veterans Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna to try and turn the tie around on Saturday. Bopanna earlier had reservations about teaming up with the 44-year-old but had no choice after AITA brought back the former World No. 1.
The two remained unfazed even after a gloomy start for India. Showing their vast experience and fighting spirit, they got a comeback 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) win over Mao Xin Gong and Ze Zhang. That brought India back to contention and they desperately needed to win the next two singles rubbers.
The result also saw Paes getting a 43rd doubles win in Davis Cup, making him the most successful doubles player in the history of the competition. It took him past the Italian great Nicola Pietrangeli, who has 42 victories.
Ramanathan, now perched at a career-high 132nd, made amends for his earlier loss by notching up a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Di Wu, who replaced Zhang after the marathon doubles.
The Indian captain Mahesh Bhupathi then fielded Gunneswaran in place of Nagal in the final rubber and it turned out to be a masterstroke. Gunneswaran won a Futures event in Chandigarh last month and carried that confidence into this match.
With four breaks of serve, the southpaw crushed the rising star and China’s hopes to get the unlikely win for India.
This is only the second time that India has come back from a 0-2 deficit at the Davis Cup. The first instance of it was in 2010 when India stormed back to beat Brazil in Chennai.
