Davis Cup | Crowd support in Bengaluru is trump card against Dutch side, says captain Rohit Rajpal

Egged on by a never giving up crowd, Nagal and Dhakshineswar entralled under a setting sun and bright floodlights on day one.

Bengaluru: An affection and an acute understanding of the game, along with fair appreciation of players irrespective of their representation, makes the sizable tennis-loving crowd of Bengaluru a favourite among the sports' community in the country. 

The fans and followers who turn up at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium nestled in Cubbon Park in the city, however, were sure to keep such 'good-old values' aside to be completely in support of the home team when the world No. 33 India were drawn against the world No. 6 Netherlands at the Davis Cup Qualifiers Round 1 tie. 

The crowd support is what the non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal was eagerly looking forward to and treated it as his trump card against a formidable Dutch side. And they more than lived-up to those expectations by backing the Indian men -- Sumit Nagal and Dhakshineswar Suresh -- during the opening two singles rubbers on Saturday. 

"The purpose of having home matches in this format is that the crowd is totally behind you. When that happens, the players get motivated and they come out with their best," the 55-year-old Rajpal had said earlier this week. 

"With so many watching and rooting for you it does create pressure. But it really depends, firstly, on the individual player and who and how the team lead is guiding you. And in such an atmosphere with the tremendous depth in tennis these days, a 400-ranked guy beating a top-100 player really does not surprise me anymore," he attested.

And that's exactly what ensued on the opening day when the 457th-ranked Dhakshineswar scored his maiden top-100 win when he defeated Netherlands' No.1 and world No. 88 Jesper De Jong to help India level the tie 1-1 after Nagal lost to Guy Den Ouden in the opener. 

Depite Nagal getting thrashed 6-0 in the first set, the almost full-house crowd never once let go of backing the home boy Nagal. On their feet jumping, dancing, hooting, whistling, sometimes screaming instructions, every point Nagal won was celebrated and every point he lost was met with encouragement to keep fighting. 

The world No. 281, making a comeback to competition after nursing a hip injury in the past few weeks, fed on the energy of those in the stands to claw his way back into the contest. After Nagal won the second set, losing a couple of points to Den Ouden -- who did well to stay composed in a thunderous atmosphere that was largely against him -- saw the Indian succumbing but earned the respect of the fans for his gritty performance. 

"Sumit has been a very responsible No. 1 for us. Whenever he's around, he really pushes all the guys to give their best. He himself is very ethical, very focused and puts in a lot of work," skipper Rajpal had expressed. 

Egged on by a never giving up crowd, Nagal and Dhakshineswar enthralled under a setting sun and bright floodlights on day one. The same is expected on Sunday. The home crowd will walk in all charged up. Hopefully the Indian boys are ready to use it as extra fuel to take their team through.