Ramkumar Ramanathan and N Sriram Balaji won their respective singles on the opening day of their Davis Cup World Group I play-off tie against Pakistan to give India a 2-0 lead here on Saturday.
all in a tight opening singles but the intensity of the match and tough conditions took a toll on him as he suffered a hamstring injury in the third set, which prevented a close finish to a hard-fought contest.
Ramkumar, India’s top singles player in the tie, served extremely well in the match and also returned better in the second set to prevail 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 while 43-year-old Aisam served 10 double faults in the match.
Ramkumar’s powerful serves was key to the outcome of the match. He served nine games at love, keeping the points short and crisp. Down by a set, Ramkumar wriggled out of a tough situation while serving at 3-4 in the second set and never looked back in the match in which he fired 20 aces.