Davis Cup: Adjusting quickly to the damp conditions in Chandigarh the key, says Leander

INDIA WILL TAKE on South Korea in the Davis Cup, Asia-Oceania Group-I tie starting tomorrow at Chandigarh and it appears that the rain will make its presence felt over the weekend. 

For the hosts, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna will be teaming up and that will certainly raise India’s hopes of winning the tie. That said, it’s going to be interesting to see what the conditions will be like at the venue after the city received some incessant rainfall. 

Speaking about the potential challenge that both teams will have to contend with Paes told PTI, 

"I think that tennis on grass is more technical, so the one who adjusts to these conditions faster, is going to have a big advantage. We were hoping that it would turn out like this where Ram gets to play the first match. Also, we were thinking about whether Lim would play doubles or not. It will be interesting to see how the weather holds out and how the matches eventually get played. But as a team, we are ready for any situation that arises.” 

“We have played in wet conditions before, especially when we played against Switzerland in Kolkata. We had rain literally all through Thursday night and on Friday morning when we got out there the court was really soft and damp. Being grass, we need to take care of that court really well.”

“We are all ready. The elements (weather conditions) is part of professional tennis and specially on this surface you have to be ready to adjust and acclimatise to the conditions.” 

For the Indians, Ramkumar Ramanathan will make his Davis Cup debut and Paes/Bopanna will team up to face Hong Chung and Yunseong Chung. 

Both Leander and Rohan will have one final chance to play with each other before they leave India for their ATP tour commitments. After Toronto masters, they will have little time to recuperate and will head into the Rio Games in the first week of August.