While the RK Khanna Stadium in the Capital buzzed with speculations about the nature of Prakash’s “stomach-bug” — the hows and whys of it — it did not go down too well with India’s non-playing captain Leander Paes. When asked about Prakash’s match fitness at the post-match press briefing, Leander made his displeasure known and felt. “People can claim what they want to. I know he (Prakash) was sick, he met the team doctor and he took the medication. Quite frankly, it’s a little unprofessional on Prakash’s part. I will protect my team at all cost,” he retorted, with the passion in his voice that is signature Leander Paes.

That having been tackled, Paes felt India were in the driving seat, but an all-crucial doubles awaits. “Today is a success, not a grand success. The last time we played them, we were 0-2 down and had our backs to the wall... Uzbekistan are on the backfoot,” he said.

While Paes thought Bopanna ‘used the grass very well,’ he thought Somdev Dev Varman was an ‘unbelievable talent who clearly wears his heart on his sleeve.’ “Somdev has a lot of room for improvement. He needs to take the game from the baseline to the middle of court and convert points.

Somdev Dev Varman, the other man in the spotlight, was rather ticklish in defeat. His honest and brusque answers to obvious questions even had Paes and Bopanna laughing. “I don’t know. If I would have known I would have done better, right?” he smirked, when asked what went wrong. “But it was great to play game India. It was cool! I even got goose bumps when I won my first game. Yeah, it was cool,” the Yankee in him kicked in.