Koreans surprised by loud crowd than fight put up by Indians

New Delhi: More than the tremendous fight put up by Indian youngsters on the final day after debacle on day one, the Korean players were surprised by the vociferous crowd, whose noise affected their concentration, in the Asia/Oceania Group 1 Davis Cup tie, here on Sunday.

Close to 3000 fans thronged the R K Khanna Tennis stadium to cheer the inexperienced Indian youngsters, who put up a gallant fight against the superior Koreans. V M Ranjeet, who was outplayed on day one, played his heart out on Sunday but lost eventually. Korean number one player Suk-Young Jeong, who defeated Ranjeet to seal the tie for his team, said he was not surprised by either Ranjeet`s fight today or Malik`s superb play on day one. "I was not surprised, I played him (Malik) two years ago and it was 5-7 4-6 something like this. I have seen him, he`s amazing. I was more surprised by the loud crowd. I have never played in atmosphere like this. I was getting angry a bit but concentrated on my game. I am happy with the result," Jeong said. Korean captain Yong-II Yoon also said that he got a bit worried for his boys due to noise created by the crowd. "There was a lot of noise. The boys are inexperienced to handle such crowd. But they did well, I am happy for them," Yoon said. Surprisingly, Jeong was the only Korean complaining about the slow court. "It was too slow, I had to mould. It`s not my tennis that I played here," he said. Jeong credited his success to new US coach he hired 12 months back. "I changed my coach a year back and made me play more inside the baseline. It changed my tennis." Jeong also said the court here was best suited to Somdev and it would not have been easy for them had all top players played for India. "Maybe it was tougher. I saw him at the Asian games. He would have liked this court. He is very good, very fast," he said. The Korean captain said his players were much richer in experience by playing and winning an away tie. "We had to worry if we had played on grass. Still, it was tough since the players did not have much Davis Cup. We will take a lot of confidence out of it." The Koreans said they will celebrate the victory at their home country since they have an early-morning flight to catch on Monday. PTI