Mumbai: Tennis ace Ramesh Krishnan feels that
the need of the hour for India to do well in the Davis Cup
competition is to produce more quality singles players to
compliment Somdev Devvarman.
"We need two or three more singles players of Somdev's
calibre to do well in Davis Cup which has four singles matches
and only one doubles tie," the former Davis Cup skipper told
reporters here today.
Ramesh, who was here to promote the TCS Corporate Tennis
Cup event to be played at the Bombay Gymkhana on weekends from
March 13, said during his time he got better exposure as he
had the chance to play against top men like Premjit Lall,
Jaideep Mukerjea and Vijay Amritraj even while in his teens.
"Exposure is a lot less now than it was 30-40 years ago.
Now a 14-year-old is playing only against another
14-year-old," said the one-time touch-artist who piloted India
to two Cup finals in his career.
Talking about India's comprehensive defeat against Russia
in their World Group first round tie in the latter's backyard,
Ramesh said it was always on the cards.
"Playing Russia in Russia was always going to be tough,"
he commented.
He was not willing to criticise the decision of young
Yuki Bhambri to skip the clash. "It was a personal decision
and I don't know the details," he said.
Bhambri missed the tie against Russia earlier this month
by opting to play in a Challenger tournament in the USA.
Ramesh was not sure whether the "Indian Express" duo of
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi would be around to lead the
country's doubles campaign in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
"That's too far away. Though Leander has said he would
like to play I'm not sure," he said.
Paying glowing tributes to India's best-ever doubles
combination, Ramesh said what they had achieved in doubles
since 1996 was "phenomenal".
"It will be very difficult to fill in their shoes when
they call it a day," he said.
The former India number one felt that it was better for
youngsters to start learning the game on clay courts and then
graduate to faster courts.
"Playing on clay builds up discipline. Youngsters can
learn better defence by playing on these courts. Injuries also
happen if they play more on hard courts," he said.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 21:24