Davis Cup | Nadal-led star-studded Spanish squad not taking India lightly

09/13/2016

Former World No.1 Rafael Nadal spoke ahead of the Davis Cup World Group play-off clash against India at the DLTA complex in New Delhi. The Spaniard said that playing for Spain always provides extra motivation, and he expects a tough match against India, who will be playing in front of the home fans.

After arriving with a star-studded squad in New Delhi, Spain's tennis squad for the David Cup World Group play-off tie against India has wasted no time by hitting the courts to get enough training for the upcoming clash. With the likes of David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal in their ranks, the Spaniards went through an intense training session which indicated that they were in no mood to take India lightly.

Speaking to PTI after the session, Nadal said that he always enjoyed coming to India and play here.

"The court is good, it's very humid. First day, we had a long trip. To be in India again is nice. I have been here a lot of times in last couple of years. I feel good here, good people, good crowd."

When asked about Spain arriving with their top-ranked players for the tie against India, the 14-time Grand Slam winner said, "I am representing my country and that's always special motivation. There's always confrontation when you are not playing at home, so difficult. India have a good team, it will be tough. They will be playing at home in front of home crowd in conditions they chose.

"We have lots of good players in top-100, it's tough for us not to be in world group, so we are looking forward to coming back to the world group, and that's the chance to win here, it's not going to be easy. We need to be ready and play our best," he said.

After completing a session that was supervised by their captain Conchita Martinez, Nadal spoke about the nature of the court saying that they were in for some “good” tennis.

"It's not very slow and not very, very fast. Good court to play good tennis," he said.

India and Spain teams will face off against each other in the World Group play-off scheduled to be played between September 16-18, in New Delhi.