Davis Cup | No point in making excuses right now, asserts Mahesh Bhupathi

The Indian tennis team under the leadership of non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi will go up against the mighty Italians over the weekend in Kolkata in their Davis Cup qualifier. The home team will enter the match as underdogs with the Italians favorite to make it through to the 18-team finals in November later this year.

Bhupathi is confident that India will have the upper edge due to home advantage and also the X-factor of the grasscourt in Kolkata will offer the hosts’ some relief. The former Grand Slam winner added that there was no point in making excuses having come this far.

"We definitely feel that this is our best chance to beat Italy on grass. Hard or clay is their strengths. We will know on Saturday if the advantage played out for us or not. So we've got the grass now I don't think we have any room for excuses anymore," Bhupathi told PTI reporters on the eve of the draw.

Bhupathi, who was part of the Indian team that lost to Serbia in the play-offs, further added that India will be termed as underdogs but are confident of upsetting Italy like Vijay Amritraj and Co. did at the same venue in the World Group first round in 1985.

"Internally within the 10 of us I think the conversation has never changed. There is a belief that everyone can contribute to hopefully upset the Italians. That's how sport is. When a team is playing another team in any sport, one team is underdog while the other is favourite. We are going in as underdogs, that's the bottom line," Bhupathi concluded.

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