Ruthless Paes leads India to away win over China

Ruthless Paes leads India to away win over China
Anil K Joseph

Lang Fang (China), February 11: Buoyed by the prospect of leading his country to a first away win in eight years, Leander Paes unleashed his ruthlessness in outclassing Chinese top seed Zhang Yu to lead India into the final round of the Asia-Oceania Davis Cup Group I competition here today.

Paes looked accustomed to the severe cold conditions after about a week in this suburban Chinese town winning the first reverse singles 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 35 minutes to give India an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match rubber.

China later narrowed down the margin to 3-2 when their No. 2 Wang Yu defeated Syed Fazaluddin 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the dead last rubber.

India will await the winner of Japan-Thailand tie for the April 6-8 rubber for a place in the World Group playoff in July. The Japan versus Thailand tie has been postponed to next week and India will hope to face Thailand, as it will give them a chance to host the tie. If Japan win, India will have to travel to the land of the Rising Sun, to carry themselves further ahead.

Though China was a weak opponent in Davis Cup terms, this away win should boost the Indian morale for the coming season after they had failed to register a triumph abroad since handing the famous 1993 defeat to France.

With the likes of Guy Forget and Henri Leconte in the French team, Paes and Ramesh Krishnan, now the non-playing captain, had scripted the memorable win in Frejus, France. India's overseas campaigns in later years were thawrted as they lost to the Czech Republic, Italy, Britain, South Korea and Sweden, and only a considerable good show at home kept them afloat in the Asia-Oceania Group-I.

Paes today was at his best against the much-touted Chinese, who was expected to give some semblance of opposition, but his ambitions were nipped in the bud. Paes did not give Zhang a chance to do anything and systematically took him apart both from behind and at the net.

The Indian was so dominant that he did not allow to be broken even once though there was a slight scare in the second and third set, but he dug himself out in time with blistering serves being his trump card.

The first set was a total demolition of Zhang as Paes allowed no room for the Chinese to take even a single game and raced to 5-0 lead with two service breaks. Paes' stop volleys and drop shots did most of the killing as Zhang found himself stranded at the baseline while Paes controlled the net.

Serving to save himself from ignominy, Zhang pushed himself too much but Paes hit some breathtaking forehand passing winners to set up three set-points for him. Zhang managed to save one before Paes executed a smash volley to finish the set 6-0.