As India get ready to play the much-delayed Davis Cup tie against Pakistan in the neutral location of Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan, it would not be an oversimplification to say the biggest challenge ahead of them is not the opposition of the matches, but the weather.
The two-day clash will be held on Friday and Saturday in indoor courts of the National Tennis Center in the capital of Kazakhstan.
With the November-end temperatures reaching as low as - 20 degrees, the players have to acclimatise to the extreme conditions outside, which affects their practice even if they will be playing in heated, indoor stadiums.
While the courts themselves are comfortable with the heating system in place, the extreme cold outside and knee-deep snow presents a unique challenge for the team. A look at the players’ social media profiles shows the snowy conditions in the city. This is the reason why the warm-ups become more important for the players who are playing their final tournament of a busy season.
“The biggest issue is the weather, getting acclimatised to these conditions is never easy especially in terms of injuries, the warm ups and cool downs that need to go on,” team coach Zeeshan Ali said from Nur-Sultan. “We have been focussing a lot on that, making sure the boys stay healthy… they have been playing a lot of matches. I am not worried about the game part of it, if they stay healthy I think we should be all right.”
Ali trusted his squad to get the job done.
“The boys are hitting the ball well, we have had some great sessions after we have come here. Of course, adjusting from outdoors to indoors is not very difficult, it’s difficult the other way round. Our players are professional and have played on all kinds of surfaces so that is not an issue,” he explained.
Newly-appointed team captain Rohit Rajpal echoed his thoughts, saying the team has done well to get used to the conditions.
“The biggest challenge was to get used to the minus 12-15 degrees cold, the snow and the weather conditions here. The boys have adjusted quite well in the last two days and we are all shaping up well and looking forward to a good time,” he said.
“The warm up and cool down sessions are important and the entire team goes through these regimens religiously as it’s important to be fit and avoid injuries due to severe cold conditions,” he added.
Sumit Nagal said that the weather conditions were just another part of playing tennis word over.
“I think it’s a fun challenge. There a lot of times we have tough situations in tennis but you have to fight it out. The good part is we are playing indoors, the last tie I played in China we played outdoor around 1-2 degrees Celsius.”
India are up against a second-string Pakistan team after top players Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi and Aqeel Khan backed out in protest of the tie shifting out of Islamabad. In their absence, Pakistan has fielded its junior players. Two 17-year-olds, Huzaifa Abdul Rehman and Shoaib Khan, both of whom are ranked as low as 446 and 1004 respectively in the junior ITF ranking list, lead the squad with Yousuf Khan and Ahmad Kamil, also teenagers.
However, Rajpal said they will not take the opposition lightly.
“Though we don’t know much about our young opponents we are leaving nothing to chance,” Ali added.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and Nagal will lead India’s charge in the singles while veteran Leander Paes is expected to pair up with Davis Cup debutant Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in the doubles. While the 30-year-old will be playing his first match, Paes will look to claim another longevity record – the most total wins (singles and doubles). He is now just one victory behind Spain’s Manuel Santana which would put him joint-fourth overall. In his last appearance, Paes won his 43rd rubber to set a new Davis Cup record for the most doubles wins.
The winner of the tie will make it to the 2020 Davis Cup Qualifiers where they will be up against Croatia, from where the winning team will strive to make it to the World Group.