2021 Davis Cup | Indian players falter on Day 1 against Finland

The Indian Davis Cup team was already missing its top three singles players, including the likes of Sumit Nagal and Yuki Bhambri for the David Cup tie against Finland. The situation headed for the worse as the duo of Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan lost their respective singles matches on the opening day of their Davis Cup tie against Finland.

Prajnesh, the highest-ranked Indian singles Tennis player, at 165, suffered a humiliating defeat to Finland’s world no 419 Otto Virtanen, with scores of 6-3, 7(7)-6(1). On the other hand, Ramkumar Ramanathan went down to 6-4, 7-5 against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost the first set without giving any sort of resistance, but staged a fitting comeback in the second one, stretching it to the tie-breaker. However, the Finnish player broke Prajnesh three times to break the deadlock and eventually win the set and the match.

The tale was no better for Ramkumar Ramanathan, as the Indian after a promising start against Emil Ruusuvuori, could not build on to the momentum, losing the first set by a 6-4 margin. The second set saw a more evenly fought contest, with it going down to the wire. However, Emil broke the Indian in the 12th game and claimed the second set 7-5 to give Finland a 2-0 lead in the two-day affair.

India now needs to win all the matches on Saturday to progress to the qualifiers for the next edition of the Davis Cup, in 2022. The pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij will start off the day with their match against Henri Kontinen and Harri Heliovaara. Meanwhile, Ramkumar and Prajnesh will play their reverse opponents from Day 1.