Davis Cup qualifiers: Dhakshin delivers a punch

Bengaluru: Dhakshineswar Suresh’s underdog tag with a game largely unknown to the opponent were the odds India were heavily betting on. And the young lad took great pride in discharging that responsibility.

The 25-year-old Madurai man lifted India’s spirits after scoring an important win to help hosts level the proceedings against the Netherlands at 1-1 on the opening day of the Davis Cup Qualifiers Round 1 tie at the SM Krishna Tennis Stadium here on Saturday.

Taking to court for the second rubber after Sumit Nagal’s defeat in the opening singles, the 6-feet-5 Dhakshineswar unleashed a mixed bag containing his trademark big serves, thumping forehand winners and sharp backhand slices to score a straight-set 6-4, 7-5 win over world No. 88 and Dutch No. 1 Jesper De Jong.

The 457th-ranked Indian, began by losing the first point on serve but won five games as the server and broke De Jong in the ninth game to close out the first set comfortably. 

The Dutchman was struggling to keep up as Dhakshineswar was focussed on building on the momentum in the second set. Doing enough to guard their service games until 6-5 with the Indian leading, De Jong’s back-to-back double faults gave the home boy a window to break his opponent in the 13th game and secure a rather dominating victory.  

A few hours earlier, Nagal going down to the Netherlands’ No. 2 Guy Den Ouden turned out to be a two-hour 30-minute ‘so near yet so far’ 0-6, 6-4, 3-6 ordeal for the Indian. 

The 28-year-old Nagal thrives on getting riled up to unleash his inner beast. But for the first hour of his match against Den Ouden, the Indian looked more disappointed in himself and distracted from his own thoughts. 

Losing the first set 0-6 had surely done enough to rile him up. Now it was time to use that anger constructively to claw himself back into the contest.

For, Den Ouden, on the other side of the net, was controlling the match just by keeping the ball in play. 

Coming out of a bathroom break, the Indian switched on his catch-up mode. Holding serve for the first time in the match, Nagal’s unforced errors began to reduce with the serves sharper than they were in the opening set. A break in the seventh put Nagal ahead 4-3 before he held his next two service games to take the match to the decider.  

Sensing the home hero looking more at ease, Den Ouden began the third by being his aggressive best. Injecting more pace to his groundstrokes, the visitor broke the second game to take a 2-0 lead. Falling behind once again and needing a lot of catching up to do, Nagal held the fourth game to close in at 1-3. Nagal’s patience and tough returns paid dividends when the Indian broke in the seventh game to inch closer 3-4. But with an important hold in the eighth faltered, Nagal surrendered to Den Ouden who did enough to hang in when it mattered most. 

It was tie predicted to be a close affair. And it sure is heading in that direction with the lone doubles and two reverse singles slated on Sunday.

Results (day 1): India vs Netherlands 1-1 (Sumit Nagal lt to Guy Den Ouden 0-6, 6-4, 3-6; Dhakshineswar Suresh bt Jesper De Jong 6-4, 7-5).