The captain of the Indian Davis Cup team, Anand Amritraj, clarified that there was no discrimination of players, and he had in fact tried to suggest two sets of teams for the Asian Games and the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie against Serbia.
Speaking to The Hindu from his home in Los Angeles, Anand said that the All India Tennis Association (AITA) had sought his views on team combination three weeks ago.
“We had to look at the composition of two teams. I looked at the latest rankings, gave it a lot of thought and after a lot of deliberation gave my suggestion to the AITA”, he said.
Anand said that it was easy to select the first four for the squad. The team of Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni was retained from the previous tie against Korea.
“If Leander Paes was available, he would take one of the doubles spots. That would leave us with two spots for the Asian Games. The players were all ranked 300 to 400. I decided to spread out the opportunity all around. Sanam Singh had won the doubles gold last time with Somdev, and he deserved a chance. Either Saketh or Divij Sharan could play mixed doubles as the sixth member of the team”, reasoned Anand.
The 62-year-old Anand was categorical that there was no North-South divide, and he had in fact seen both Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and R. Ramkumar grow into quality players over the last few years.
“I wanted Jeevan and Ramkumar to be the reserves in the Davis Cup squad”, said Anand.
The fact that the AITA opted to announce only the Asian Games squad had caused a lot of heart burn, making the concerned players wonder what they had done wrong, despite all the hard work and progress.
“I thought, it was fair to all the boys. I know how hard they work. There was no discrimination. Whether they belonged to the North or South was the last thing in my mind. This was my thought process and am happy that the AITA has taken my suggestions”, he said.
Anand said that he was speaking to Yuki Bhambri who was competing in the US, as well as Somdev. He said that both were scheduled to play different Challenger tournaments the week before the Davis Cup tie in Bangalore.
“The Davis Cup is going to be tough, but not completely out of our reach. It is possible to do it. (Novak) Djokovic is apparently not planning on coming. It looks 50-50 in terms of him competing in Bangalore. (Janko) Tipsarevic has had a surgery, but the other three guys would be ready”, Anand said.
Dusan Lajovic (62), Filip Krajinovic (134) and Ilija Bozoljac (185) will be the other leading players of Serbia who could make the team for the World Group play-off tie, along with the doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic, the former world No.1, ranked No.6 at the moment.
