Taiwan face India in the Davis Cup this weekend with an eye on earning a place in the elite World Group for the first time.
Standing in the path of Lu Yen-hsun, Chen Ti, Yang Tsung-hua and Yi Chu-huan is an Indian team containing two of the best doubles players on the planet and a rising star who reached his first ATP tour final earlier this year.
The bad news for the home side is the absence through injury of Davis Cup stalwart Jimmy Wang. The good news is the return from injury of Taiwanese No.1 Lu, who pulled out of the tie against Kazakhstan last month with a knee injury.
Much will depend on Lu, who is in the form of his life, having reached his highest-ever world ranking of 57 last month.
Taiwanese fans can also take heart from Chen’s performance against Kazakhstan and a fine victory by doubles pair Yang and Yi against the same opponents.
The latter will face Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi tomorrow, a daunting task against a pair with a 23-2 record in Davis Cup doubles and whose last loss in the competition was in 1996.
Bhupathi, ranked seven in the world in doubles, and Paes, ranked six, have not always seen eye to eye, despite winning three Grand Slam titles. Just after taking the 2006 Asian Games title, they announced that they would never play together again, but have put aside their differences to an extent, teaming up at the Olympics and in the Davis Cup but preferring different partners for other events.
Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvaraman will be on singles duty for the visitors in Kaohsiung in the absence of Prakash Amritraj, ruled out by a new policy that allows only Indian citizens to play for the country. Amritraj — son of Indian tennis star and one-time James Bond film actor Vijay Amritraj — is a US passport holder.
“It’s a big blow, but we got to deal with it,” Bhupathi told the Press Trust of India last month.
On the tie in Kaohsiung, Bhupathi said: “It is going to be very tough. Playing against any Asian team is tough and they also have a top-50 [sic] player.”
Devvarman, who has just turned 24, reached the final of the Chennai Open in January beating top-50 ranked players Carlos Moya and Ivo Karlovic on the way, before losing to Marin Cilic in final.
Although Bopanna’s singles ranking of 320 is unlikely to give the Taiwanese sleepless nights, he is an experienced Davis Cup campaigner. He also has a decent record against his likely singles adversaries, having beaten and lost to Lu last year and having beaten Chen in straight sets on the two occasions they have met.
The winners of the tie at the Yang-Ming Tennis Center will meet the victors of this weekend’s clash between Thailand and Australia for a place in the playoffs for next year’s World Group.
Chen and Devvaraman get the ball rolling today, with Lu taking on Bopanna in the second match. Play starts at 11am today and on Sunday while tomorrow’s doubles match begins at 1pm. Tickets for each day cost NT$400. A three day ticket is available for NT$1,000.
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