Draw favours India in Davis Cup
India got a draw they were
hoping for, with the team's best bet Leander Paes squaring off
against the lesser known Chilean Babriel Silberstein in the
opening match of the World Group play-off match beginning at the R K Khanna Stadium in New Delhi Friday.
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, before leaving on his foreign
tour, picked the 183rd ranked Silberstein's name at the draw held
this morning, and brought some relief to the home side.
In the second singles, Mahesh Bhupati will take on world number seven Marcelo Rios.
Saturday's doubles will see Bhupathi and Paes, who have had
tremendous success recently as a pair, play Nicolas Massu and Hermes
Gamonal. Both teams, however have the choice of changing their
doubles team.
Both India's non playing captain Jaideep Mukherjea and the world 98th
ranked Paes called it a good draw. Chile's non-playing captain
Patricio Cornejo sounded philosophical when he said the combination
hardly mattered, as the tie would anyway have to be played.
Paes, the hero of many a Davis Cup win for India, said ''I am
happy to play first. Its good for us''. He was, however, of the
opinion that the draw really did not really matter so much as one
had to prepare for all the three days.
When asked if he was going into the game against
Silberstein with a certain level of over-confidence because of good
performances recently, the Indian said that was not the case.
On the tie as a whole, Mukherjea said he would not say that the
Indians started favourites against Chile.
''Even though the boys are playing well, I don't think we are
favourites. They have the world number seven. We have the
home advantage surely, but we cannot be over confident,'' he said.
India's number two player, Mahesh Bhupathi, who has a ranking of
220, hoped that the home advantage of having a big crowd support
would help him in his match against the world number seven, Rios.
Bhupathi, who lost to the reputed Chilean in the first round of
Wimbledon, said he had a better idea now of Rios's game and what to
expect.
The Indian, who won the French Open mixed doubles this year, said
he had been working at improving his overall game and fitness during
the last two months.
The 21 year old, pony-tailed, Rios said the weather was against the
visitors and so also the surface since the Chileans were more of
clay court players. But that would not stop them from
giving their best, he added.
Asked if he might play the doubles, Rios said a decision
regarding that would be made after the opening day's tie.
Cornejo said he might change the doubles team, partially or
totally, on Saturday. It depended on how the tie was going, he
added.
Chile's best Davis Cup performances were in 1975 and 1976. In '75
they reached the semis and the next year they lost to Italy in the
final. They are now trying to come back into the elite world group
after last being there in 1987.
The referee for the tie will be Javier Sansierra of Spain while
the two umpires will be John France of Scotland and Oliver Wolss of
Germany.
UNI
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