Davis Cup Tie in Islamabad: India finally sends names, details of tennis squad

ISLAMABAD: India have yielded to international pressure and have decided to send their team to Islamabad for the November 29-30 Davis Cup tie against Pakistan.

They sent a revised list of the squad along with all documents for the visa process to the Pakistan Tennis Federation on Thursday.

The Davis Cup tie will be played at the grass courts of the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad.

Leander Paes has replaced Mahesh Bhupathi as the non-playing captain while there are also changes in the playing team members.

Sunder Narayan Iyer is India’s manager while the other members are Syed Zeeshan Ali (coach), Anand Kumar (physio), Saketh Sai Myneni (player), Suresh Kumar Manish (player), Rawat Sidharth (player), Arjun Jayant Kadhe (player), Sri Ram Balaji (player) and Sasikumar Mukund (player). The team will also be accompanied by Sri Lakshmi Anumolu (Myneni’s spouse).

The squad that the All India Tennis Association had sent almost three months back included Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who is ranked 89 in the world and is considered a grass-court specialist. Ramkumar Ramanathan, ranked 134, and doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna were also part of that team.

Anil Kumar Khanna, an important figure of Indian tennis and the Asian Tennis Federation president who was to accompany the team as the contingent’s head, has also withdrawn his name because of the ATF elections on the same dates in India.

Despite many reminders by the PTF to India to provide details and documents of the team for early completion of visa formalities, the AITA was reluctant to oblige. It forced the PTF to write to the Davis Cup Committee and the move bore fruit.

The tie was earlier scheduled to be held on September 14-15.

“Ever since the ITF committee changed the dates of the tie, we kept reminding India to provide details of their team. When they did not, as a last resort we approached the ITF committee and today India provided us the details,” PTF President Salim Saifullah Khan said.

Saifullah has directed the PTF officials to hasten the visa process. “We have started visa seeking process immediately. When it comes to getting a visa for an Indian national, everyone knows the process is lengthy. Still, we will do all we can to complete everything in time,” he said. The ITF committee will meet in 10 days’ time to decide the related formalities for the tie.