2021 Davis Cup | Indians surprised with low-bounce, slow paced courts in Finland
The two-day Davis Cup tie between India and Finland begins on Friday
|The Indian Davis Cup team is surprised with the low bounce and not-so-fast courts for the upcoming match against Finland, in Espoo. Unfortunately, India will be missing out on their three top singles players - Sumit Nagal, Sasikumar Mukund, and Yuki Bhambri - for the important clash.
India will be facing Finland in a two-day Davis Cup tie beginning on Friday. Three days prior to the fixture, the visiting players got an opportunity to practice on the match court, which has been laid temporarily on an ice-hockey stadium.
Incidentally, the nature of the court suits the Indian players, as it was not as fast as they were expecting and even carries a low bounce. Non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal was anticipating a fast hard court but that has not been the case.
"What they have done is that they have pulled the ice out and put a wooden plank and laid the court over it, so the bounce is low that suits us but at the same time the slowness of the court does not suit us," said Rohit Rajpal, as reported by PTI.
"The Europeans mostly play on clay courts which are slower, so they like to rally a lot and that is their strength. Our Indian players do not do that but low bounce will certainly benefit us and our strategy will revolve around that," he added.
Finland have higher-ranked players in both singles and doubles categories, yet, Rohit feels that the Indians are in with a chance. The veteran believes that the low-bounce will help the playing style of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
"We can chip and charge, our players do that often. Both Ramkumar and Prajnesh hit flat and for that, the low bounce will be pretty helpful. You can't do that on high bounce courts," informed the captain.
