Davis Cup tie under floodlights at Bangalore

In a bid to draw in more spectators for India’s Asia Oceania Davis Cup tie against Indonesia here from April 5-7, the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association will be staging the matches in the evening.

“We have taken special permission from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to stage the matches late in the day, so as to provide the citizens of Bangalore a chance to come and watch all the ties leisurely,” said CS Sunder Raju, secretary of the KSLTA, as the Garden City gears up to play host to a Davis Cup tie after a gap of 28 years. “On the opening day (April 5), the first tie would start at 3.00 pm, followed by the second singles. The doubles match on the second day (April 6) will start at 5.00 pm.

“The reverse singles on the third and final day, will be played from 3.00 pm. We expect the ties on all three days to stretch beyond dusk and we have adequate lighting system, as per ITF specification, in place at the stadium,” added Raju, who is also the joint secretary of the All India Tennis Association.

The Indian players have been requesting slower courts that suit their game and KSLTA said they’ve relaid the centre court and pratice court to their needs. “They wanted a slower surface and we had specialists from Delhi to re-do the surface and it is ready now,” said Ramaswamy, joint secretary of the KSLTA.

“The players’ lounge and other facilities at the stadium are being re-furbished. The tickets will be moderately priced and will go on sale from early next week. A special discount is being offered to clubs and academies for bulk purchase.”

The last Davis Cup tie played in Bangalore was against Sweden who triumphed 4-1 in the quarterfinal tie. Boasting off Mats Wilander, Andres Jayrrd, Stefan Edberg and Joakim Nystrom, the Swedes proved too good for the Indian quartet of Vijay Amritaj, Anand Amritraj, Ramesh Krishnan and Sashi Menon. However, Vijay Amritraj gave the crowd something to cheer about when he scored a 8-6, 9-7 win over Wilander in the reverse singles.

Having turned then clay courts into grass courts to suit the home players in just 10 weeks that earned them a lot of praises, the KSLTA is hoping to stage another successfull outing -- this time results wise too.