New Delhi: Indian tennis great Vijay Amritraj is not giving much of chance to the Somdev Devvarman-led team in its Davis Cup World Group play-off against Czech Republic later this month and says “we can’t do well in team events” unless we have top 50 singles players. Amritraj says India have enough doubles players to choose from but lack of quality singles players is hurting their growth in Davis Cup. So much so that return of Leander Paes for the September 18-20 contest “doesn’t make any difference”.
“Well Leander has just one match. It doesn’t make any difference. We have enough doubles players in the country. That is the not the issue. The issue is trying to find players in the top-100. That is what we need to be a good team. It is difficult for us to make the World group if we don’t have good singles players. Not even in top-100, I would say we need top-50 guys because eventually we will be playing against them only to make the World Group,” Amritraj told PTI on the sidelines on a conference on business of sports organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The former World No. 16 further explained his point. “It comes down to four singles in Davis Cup. It is very important to win one match on the opening day. “For us to win without top-50 players is tough. Having said that, we have won many matches which we were not expected to win. So miracles happen.”
