JOIN USYuki Bhambri is not afraid to speak his mind. The 20-year-old had openly challenged Leander Paes to show faith on the youngsters during the London Olympics. And Vishnu Vardhan, who paired with the veteran at the mega event, won the hearts with his impressive showing.
Yuki, who in the absence of senior players is spearheading the Indian challenge against New Zealand in the Davis Cup tie here asserted that the youngsters deserve their place in the team.
The Delhi boy said players like him, Vishnu and Divij Sharan are the future and the Davis Cup tie is another opportunity for them to show their talent.
“We have already sort of proved ourselves. We deserved to be playing the Davis Cup and be part of the team. For the next few years it is going to be me, Vishnu, Divij and Sanam Singh. Mahesh and Leander have done a great job for the country, they are the icons, but they are at the end of their careers. It will though be good to have Somdev (Devvarman) back. We are confident that we can pull off this tie.” Yuki himself is on a new high winning his maiden ATP challenger event in May in Uzbekistan and enjoying his good run with his new doubles partner Sharan. He admits he is a more confident player in the last seven months and holds the belief of belonging to a higher echelon.
The change came with his victory over Denis Istomin during a dead singles match in the Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan on clay earlier this year. “I was 320 in the world and beating the World no 43 on clay gave me a lot of confidence. After that I started slowly winning a few matches at the challenger level. Even though I lost quite a few close matches, I began to feel I belong there,” Yuki said.
“Now when I step on court, I go with a feeling that I deserve to win rather than thinking that I have to do something extra to win. That made a lot of difference. The last couple of years were not great as I was facing a lot of injuries. But once I recovered, I was able to work on my game. I also ensure that I take care of my body now.”
The Davis Cup will test his fitness with matches often spilling to fourth or fifth sets. Yuki, though, is confident to hang on if the need arises. “Five-setter is going to be a challenge.
I have never gone the whole way, so I am not sure what to expect. We have been playing five sets during the training and I am confident of my fitness.” Though he hasn’t seen much of New Zealand players, he is well verse with the game of Michael Venus who has been his training partner in Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida. “Even though rankings don’t matter, I feel it still gives us the edge in the tie,” he said.