Indian tennis hopes set to rejuvenate from Dhakshineswar Suresh

Bengaluru: Sumit Nagal and Suresh Ekka, with arms around each other’s shoulders, danced to the tamate beats. A few steps away, Ekka’s son -- Dhakshineswar Suresh -- happily obliged every stranger’s handshake, selfie and autograph requests. Skipper Rohit Rajpal’s eyes welled with tears of joy, Yuki Bhambri was locked in a tight embrace with Karan Singh, and the recently-retired Rohan Bopanna walked around with pride as the rest of the players and support staff celebrated with family, friends and fans.

Such scenes of ecstasy and jubilation at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium kept Cubbon Park awake past its bedtime at 11 pm under a starry Sunday night. This was at the end of an eight-hour duel in which the 33rd-ranked India stunned the world No. 6 side and 2024 runners-up - the Netherlands - in their Davis Cup Qualifiers Round 1 tie here in front of a home crowd that refused to stop believing in their team over the weekend.

Amid this rare euphoria in Indian tennis, Dhakshineswar -- the main architect of the three wins that gave India a thrilling 3-2 victory -- remained humble. And, perhaps, this was the reason why the Indian team placed so much faith in the 25-year-old, who is known to stay unperturbed by the outside noise or expectations.

Of course, the big serves, backed up by leg work for tactful groundstrokes and deft hands for volleying, worked in his favour. But it was his ability to stay calm and trust himself during crunch situations against higher-ranked opponents in a high-stakes team game that played equal part in him reeling off three wins as India recorded one of their most memorable Davis Cup victories.

The last time an Indian notched up such a hat-trick - two singles and a doubles - in a single tie was Leander Paes -- former doubles specialist with 18 Grand Slam titles -- during India’s 3-2 away win against New Zealand in 2004.

This time it was a 465th-ranked Dhakshineswar winning over world No. 88 Jesper De Jong in the second singles on Saturday which was his first against a top-100 player. The 6-feet-6 Dindigul (in Tamil Nadu) man then partnered Bhambri to score an important victory over Sander Arends and David Pel before defeating wolrd No. 162 Guy Den Ouden in straight sets without facing a single breakpoint in the fifth and final reverse singles.

“I’ve done this before a lot of times (in collegiate tennis), but then playing here... Three full sets for three hours and then coming back and doing the same, it’s tough on the body. I just wanted to give it out there for India and for myself,” said Dhakshineswar, a West Forest University student in the USA, in the post-match presser on Sunday.

As for the Dutch, flying into the city without their top two players -- Tallon Griekspoor (world No. 29) and Botic van de Zandschulp (67) -- will surely have them questioning their tactics. The visitors might have allowed some complacency to creep in after learning about the injury to India’s top player Nagal. Were they also deceived by Dhakshineswar’s world ranking, which is in the 400s? Finally, the role the passionate crowd played in inspiring the home boys came out of the syllabus.

The Indian team members will now split to pursue their own careers before they regroup for Qualifiers round 2 where South Korea hosts India in September.

Until then, this special weekend will be savoured by Indian tennis fans for a long time to come with a renewed hope of the game’s rejuvenation as Dhakshineswar leads the rise of a new set of players.