Rohan Bopanna, a former world No. 3 doubles player, has pulled out of the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie against Spain, owing to a knee injury sustained during the US Open.
The communication, supported by medical advice that Bopanna needed two weeks of rest, helped the chairman of the selection committee, S.P. Misra to promptly push the 19-year-old Sumit Nagal into the squad.
“It would have been great had Bopanna and Leander Paes played the doubles against Spain. But, when a player is injured, what can we do. There was no time to search for players. We have been trying for a long time to have three singles players in the team. Now, the captain has a choice when he wants to play Sumit Nagal. The doubles team will be Saketh Myneni and Leander,” said Misra.
Elaborating further, the former Davis Cup captain said that it was getting difficult when there was an injury for the singles player during the tie, as was the case in the last tie against Korea in Chandigarh.
“Thank God, it was luckily on grass, and Bopanna was ready to play the reverse singles when Saketh was still recovering from the first day’s physical issues in Chandigarh. It is important that we have three singles players in the team. It is an opportune time for Sumit, even though he makes the team by accident,” said Misra.
Nagal is busy competing in an ITF Futures event in Italy as the top seed, and is scheduled to join the squad by Monday.
Coach Zeeshan Ali said that the rest of the team would assemble in Delhi on Sunday and start training by evening. “Leander is coming on Monday,” said Zeeshan.
Incidentally, the Spanish team of Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez is also scheduled to reach the capital on Monday, for the tie to be held from September 16 to 18.
