India was beaten 0-3 by a far superior team from Norway as the world No. 2 Casper Ruud paired with Viktor Durasovic to win the doubles match and overcome defeat in Saturday’s World Group-I game of the Davis Cup. complete. The Indian pair Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni went down 3-6 6-3 3-6. After losing both singles on opening day, the Yuki-Saketh pair did battle before losing to the fancied Norwegian duo in an hour and 50 minutes.
On the first day, both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran had lost their respective singles by identical margins of 1-6 4-6 to Durasovic and Ruud respectively.
While Ruud, a finalist at the French Open and US Open, is a cut above the rest, the Indians couldn’t even tame Durasovic, whose singles ranking is a low 325 and 224 in the doubles list.
Ruud, on the other hand, doesn’t even play double on the track. However, as was often the case, the strong singles player had an advantage over the specialized doubles.
The Norwegian duo needed one break point each in the first and third set to grab the rubber.
The Yuki-Saketh pair had had some success at the Challenger level where they reached a few finals, but at a level a few steps up, the duo failed to keep India afloat despite a better understanding on paper then the pair of Ruud and Durasovic.
With Norway taking an unassailable 3-0 lead, the two reverse singles will not be played.
The Indian team faced a heavy defeat after leading 0-2 over the hosts after Ramkumar’s loss to Durasovic at second base on Friday-evening.
Ramkumar, the number one singles player for India, fell short of expectations when he suffered a 1-6, 4-6 defeat to lower-seeded opponent Durasovic in one hour and 16 minutes.
After Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost to world No. 2 and Ruud, runner up at the US Open, in an expected first singles result, it was up to Ramkumar to keep India level by winning the second match.
But it wasn’t to be, as Ramkumar, ranked 276th in the world, proved no match for 325th ranked Durasovic who broke the Indian’s serve three times and racked up 12 aces compared to three by his opponent at the Hakons Hall. Hard Court. indoor facility.
Durasovic sent down five aces in the first set, while breaking Ramkumar’s serve twice. In the first set, Ramkumar could only hold on to his first serve to make it 1-1, but after that it was all about Durasovic. Ramkumar also had two double faults which made things worse for him as Durasovic took the first set with ease.
Ramkumar tried to come back in the second set, but he failed to hold on to his second service game to give Durasovic a 2-1 lead. The Indian was unable to break Durasovic’s serve, as the Norwegian fired seven aces. With a 5-4 lead, Durasovic held on to his serve to close the game.
Earlier, in the first singles on Friday, Ruud was too good for Prajnesh.
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Ruud, who finished second at the US Open after going to Carlos Alcaraz on Monday, showed up for national service four days later and did the job for his team. He defeated the 335-ranked Indian 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and two minutes.
After being completely outplayed in the first set, Prajnesh upped his game in the second to make Ruud’s task more difficult. While the Indian failed to take a breakpoint, his more accomplished opponent converted three of the five chances he was given.
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