Swiss captain expresses admiration for the Indian team

Swiss captain Severin Luthi
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Particular Association

Indian tennis has not had it this good in Davis Cup for many years. To beat Switzerland, the land of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, with all its higher-ranked gamers, in entrance of their followers in Biel, was an unimaginable achievement by the Indian staff.

In actual fact, captain Rohit Rajpal famous that this win was solely after the 1993 victory over France in Frejus, for an Indian staff to triumph in Europe.

“It’s a dream come true. We’re actually completely happy. We obtained right here early, and the staff did a variety of work. Davis Cup is hard. Am extraordinarily proud of the boys. They did a variety of laborious work, performed very effectively, and saved their stage up,” mentioned Rajpal, after India secured a 3-1 victory on Saturday within the two-day tie.

The captain of the Swiss staff, Severin Luthi was healthful in his reward of India’s efficiency, and solely regretted the purpose that the house staff didn’t discover a solution to make it 1-1 on the primary day.

“Initially, credit score to Indian staff. They actually pushed laborious. They gave the impression to be very dedicated and had a variety of fireplace in enjoying for his or her nation. They did a great job. My solely remorse is that we couldn’t do a greater job on the primary day. At 1-1, there’s extra chance to win the tie,” he mentioned.

The 626th ranked Dhakshineswar Suresh had given a dream begin for India by beating the Swiss No.1 in straight units, and the staff capitalised on the momentum.

The Swiss captain revealed that the staff’s No.1 participant Jerome Kym had harm his calf in that first match, and he couldn’t have risked enjoying him if he was not match.

“We had an opportunity with Henry Bernet. Sadly, Sumit performed a great match. Henry was a bit tight, which is regular in his first Davis Cup match. We tried our greatest, no regrets on that,” mentioned Luthi.

Sriram Balaji took the blame on himself for not firing his first serves when the staff was main 3-2 within the decider towards Jakub Paul and Dominic Stricker. He did recall dropping a detailed match to the identical staff within the ATP occasion in Gstaad in July (4-6, 7-6(8), 7-10).

“We had been in a profitable place at 4-4 within the second set. Later, at 3-2 within the third set, we gave them just a few second serves, and so they hit three return winners. First serves may have modified the sport,” noticed Sriram Balaji, concerning the shut 7-6(3), 4-6, 5-7 loss within the doubles.

“We had the prospect to get the win. We didn’t play our greatest, however competed laborious. They performed the details higher. We couldn’t get the job finished.,” conceded Rithvik Bollipalli.

Captain Rohit Rajpal hoped to hold on the momentum into the Davis Cup Qualifier subsequent yr.

“After we know who we play, we are going to put together equally laborious, and see if we are able to take issues additional,” he mentioned.

The 13 profitable groups from World Group-1 will be part of the opposite groups already within the Qualifiers pool, and have a two-round knock-out draw subsequent yr, to determine the seven groups progressing to the Finals.