Davis Cup | Bopanna wins singles, but Yong-Kyu Lim prevents clean sweep for India

ByArun S Kaimal, SportsCafe Editor

07/17/2016

Indian doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna found the rhythm in the singles once again to defeat Hong Chung at Chandigarh. But, South Korean Yong-Kyu Lim prevented the hosts from getting a 5-0 win by defeating Ramkumar Ramanathan in the second reverse singles in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I tie.

After Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes finished off the challenge from South Korea yesterday to give Indian an unassailable 3-0 lead, both teams took on each other once again on Sunday in the men’s reverse singles. Rohan Bopanna, who is now mainly a doubles player, took the court instead of Saketh Myneni, who is still recovering from his challenging match on Friday.

Bopanna, who last played a singles match in the Davis Cup back in 2012, surrendered the first set 3-6 to the South Korean player Hong Chung before bouncing back by taking the second and third set on a 6-4, 6-4 scoreline. It was the 10th win for Bopanna in singles in Davis Cup.

In the final match, Ramkumar Ramanathan took on Yong-Kyu Lim in a bid to give India a 5-0 clean sweep in the tie. But, the dead rubber went to the wire with both players refusing to give up. Ramanathan, ranked 217 in the world, lost the first set 3-6 to his opponent, who is ranked 409 rungs below him, but came back into the match by taking the second set 7-5. The third and the deciding set was decided on a tie-breaker with the Korean clinching it 7-6 to prevent a whitewash.

With the 4-1 win, India will move into the World Group play-offs in a bid to qualify for the elite-16 nation World Group. The play-off matches will be in held in September.

Also, read : Has India lost out on an Olympic medal because of Mirza, Bopanna, and Paes' stubbornness?