India today sealed their place in the Davis Cup World Group Tennis Play-offs with Rohan Bopanna and N Sriram Balaji routing their rivals with clinical precision for an unassailable 3-0 lead against Uzbekistan.
Bopanna and debutant Balaji beat the Uzbek pair of Farrukh Dustov and Sanjar Fayziev 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 in the doubles rubber of Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group-I tie at the KSLTA stadium in Bengaluru. The World Group Play-offs will be held in September.
Yesterday, Ramkumar Ramanathan and debutant Prajnesh Gunneswaran had handed India a comfortable 2-0 lead by winning their singles matches against Temur Ismailov and Fayziev of Uzbekistan. Ramnathan beat Ismailov 3-1, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
In the second match Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat Sanjar Fayziev 3-1, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Tomorrow’s reverse singles will now have no bearing on the outcome of the tie as it will be the best of three sets.
