PTI
Bangalore, September 12
Yuki Bhambri failed to rise to the occasion and suffered a straight-set bashing at the hands of Dusan Lajovic in the opening singles to leave India trailing 0-1 in the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie against Serbia, here today.
Yuki, who missed a good part of the season due to a heel injury, could play well only in patches as world number 61 Lajovic cruised to a 6-3 6-2 7-5 win in two hours and four minutes at the KSLTA stadium.
Not having enough matches under his belt, it was an arduous task for Yuki to down a player, who has been in tremendous form this season, in which he reached the French Open pre-quarterfinals too.
Yuki struggled to rein in his free flowing unforced errors and could not finish the points after setting them up. A staggering 59 unforced errors and failure to convert seven of the nine break chances, told the story of the match.
The onus to bring India back in the tie is now on Somdev Devvarman, who will take on Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic. Even as the two players struggled with their first serves, it was Yuki who shocked the Serbian side by getting the first break in the third game. Yuki’s strategy was clear -- keep the points short. He approached net for that to happen and set up two points in that game with that.
Yuki converted the chance when Lajovic failed to tackle a brilliant backhand return from him, sending a forehand ball long.
The smiles from faces of the Indian team and that of the 2500-strong crowd evaporated soon as Yuki lost his serve at love in the next game, failing to contain his errors.
The ball was coming at a good height due to the high-altitude conditions and going for the big ground-strokes, a key component of Yuki’s game, was difficult.
