Prajnesh Gunneswaran could hold the key when India take on Italy in the first round of the Davis Cup qualifiers at the South Club from February 1.
The only time India won against Italy in five meetings was at this very venue way back in 1985. The winner of the tie will compete in the inaugural World Group play-offs in November.
The left-handed Prajnesh shot into the limelight in the tie-deciding fifth rubber against Chinese teen sensation Yibing Wu in Tianjin last April, when he eked out a dramatic 6-4, 6-2 win.
Coach Zeeshan Ali agreed the tie in Tianjin proved to be a defining moment in the 29-year-old’s career.
“The tie versus China was definitely a changing point in his career. He had the belief in himself that he could win the fifth match... Mahesh and I saw the fire, the self-belief he had,” Zeeshan said, after a practice session at the Gymkhana Club courts on Thursday.
“Hence we decided to let him play the fifth match. That match gave him a lot of confidence and self-belief... that he can go out and play under tough conditions… At 2-2, a live rubber in Davis Cup is never easy. And for somebody who’s never played a Davis Cup match before, it’s all the more tough.
“He’s very close to being in the top-100 in the world. Maybe in another two or three tournaments, we would see him in the top-100. So it’s been an incredible journey… He’s 29 now. In a normal scenario, this would be more towards the latter stage of a tennis player’s career. But as far as he’s concerned, this is when he seems to have really bloomed.”
Zeeshan is banking on two factors — the home advantage and unpredictability of Davis Cup. “Prajnesh has never played any match on grass. Obviously, on paper, they are a far better team. As it’s been proved in the past, rankings don’t really matter in the Davis Cup. India have always been the underdogs whenever we played in the World Group.
“Having said that, we reached the finals twice, we reached the semi-finals in 1992. We have beaten some of the teams that have had very high-ranked players.
“So India have a reputation of being the underdogs but coming out and beating teams that have higher-ranked players...
“We have the home-court advantage. One of the advantages of playing at home is, hopefully, to draw in a big crowd that would support our team… I’m hoping that the crowd comes in big numbers to support us,” Zeeshan remarked.
The team has no fitness issues and the players are getting used to the surface. “We can see from the attitude of the players that it was the right decision to be here early to acclimatise. They all believe that they have a very good chance of winning this time.”
