New Delhi: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Sunday that the Indian tennis team would host Denmark in the Davis Cup 2022 World Group I play-offs on March 4 and 5. India’s play-off against Denmark will feature one doubles and four singles matches.
India’s past three ties were at Finland (2021), Croatia (2020), and Kazakhstan (2019, Pakistan tie).
In February 2019, India hosted Italy at home and succumbed 1-3 in Kolkata.
Even though Denmark has a singles player in Holger Rune (103), who is ranked higher than all of the Indian players, the hosts have a favorable draw.
It would be the first meeting between the two nations since India defeated Denmark 3-2 in Aarhus in September 1984. The only previous occasion the two teams met was in the quarterfinals of the 1927 World Cup in Copenhagen when Denmark thrashed India 5-0.
“Thank God, after many ties, we have got a home match. The previous two ties were tough for us, we played Croatia who made the Davis Cup finals. Then we played Finland and everyone thought Finland was an easy team, which was not the case,” India coach Zeeshan Ali told PTI.
“India on paper is supposed to be a strong team but except Ramkumar Ramanathan, who is 190 in the world, we don’t have anyone in top-200 in singles. We don’t have anyone in top-100 for long.
“We were always underdogs but we always had the players to perform very well in Davis Cup but right now we are struggling, so whoever we are playing it’s going to be a challenge,” he said.
Zeeshan believed that a lot will be determined by which players are available for the tie.
“The last time we did not have our number one player with us, then Yuki was down with an injury. If we have a full strength team, if Sumit is fit by March and Yuki is also available, we have a very good chance of beating Denmark in India,” he said.
Nagal, who recently had a vacation due to a hip problem, is currently rated 218. Prajnesh Gunneswaran (215) has slipped out of the top-200.
Ramkumar just re-entered the top 200 after winning a Challenger.
