Davis Cup | Match against China was turning point of Prajnesh Gunneswaran’s career, opines Zeeshan Ali

01/25/2019

India’s coach Zeeshan Ali has mentioned that the Davis Cup decider against China last year was the turning point in Parjnesh Gunneswaran’s career. The Indian team, under Mahesh Bhupathi’s captaincy, will take on Italy in the Davis Cup qualifiers on February 1 and 2 on grass in Kolkata.

Ahead of the crucial Davis Cup qualifier tie against Italy, the Indian team had a training session at Gymkhana Club in Kolkata. Non-playing skipper Mahesh Bhupathi and coach Zeeshan Ali oversaw the session as India’s top two men’s singles tennis players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan practised in the middle along with Saketh Myneni and Sai Kumar Mukund.

Gunneswaran recently qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open but couldn’t make it past the first round of the Grand Slam in Melbourne. However, he will be the torch bearer for the Indians against the higher-ranked Italian side. As per Ali, Gunneswaran’s win against China in April 2018 in the deciding fifth match was an important point of his tennis career and gave the 29-year-old a lot of confidence.

"He had belief that he could win the fifth rubber. That gave him a lot of confidence and allowed him to go out and play under tough conditions. He always had the game but that was probably the turning point of his journey (as a player)," Ali told TOI.

The Indian coach is delighted to see the players sweating out in the practice sessions ahead of the match. He said that he can mark the difference in the players’ performance during practice and coming to Kolkata much ahead of the tie was a good decision for the side.

"Coming in early will only benefit us. There is huge difference between how the guys were hitting the ball yesterday and how they are doing it today. So that's a good sign and it can only get better from here. Seeing the attitude of the players it was right decision to come in earlier," the coach said.