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India win Davis doubles tie, lead 2-1

Shailesh Soni

India took a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group-1 second round tie against South Korea after Leander Paes and Vishal Uppal defeated Hyung Taek Lee and Young Il Yoon 6-7(5-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(7-4) in the doubles match on Saturday afternoon.

The teams were level 1-1 after the opening singles on Friday.

It was indeed a superb performance by the Indian pair. Despite playing together as a team for the first time, they were calm and composed in this crucial encounter.

In fact, coach Ramesh Krishnan deserves a pat on the back. The former Indian ace pulled a rabbit out of his hat in the morning when he changed plans and sent out a young man to play his first Davis Cup match along with the world No 3 doubles player. That youngster was Vishal. And he responded to the coach's faith, did everything what was expected of him and gave India a crucial victory.

The first set saw no break in the serve, which forced the tie-breaker. The Koreans held their nerves and took the set at 7-6(7-5).

The reverse saw Leander effect a change in plan. After watching Vishal's confidence in the opening set, he asked Vishal to start serving in every set thereafter. And the youngster obliged. He served 12 games in all, and ended up as the only player who was never broken.

In the second set, the Indians came back strongly to break Yoon's service in the very first game. That sufficed for them to win the set 6-4 and level the scores.

Third set saw the Koreans drop serve in the opening game itself, with Lee losing his service in the very first game. The Indians then got another service break on Lee's serve in the fifth game but sort of surrendered the advantage, with Leander dropping his serve in the game that followed. However, they played steadily thereafter to take the set 6-4.

The fourth set was a keen tussle all the way, with both the teams holding serve to force another tie-breaker. Unlike the first set, the Leander and Uppal capitalised on the chances that came their way to win the tiebreaker at 7-4, and set and match 7-6.

The reverse singles will be played tomorrow.