Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri came up with a stupendous display on Sunday as they won their respective reverse singles matches against New Zealand's Marcus Daniell and Micheal Venus respectively in the Asia-Oceania second-round tie.
India defeated New Zealand 3-2 in the tie where Rohan Bopanna and co were expected to win without much problems. But New Zealand started the Davis Cup rubber with a victory in the first singles match on Friday, where Somdev lost to Michael Venus, before India won the next match and New Zealand the doubles. But the final couple of matches of the tie on Sunday saw Yuki and Somdev in full flow, helping India turn triumphant.
With this victory, India have booked their berth in the World Group Play-off, where the competition is going to be top-notch. They need to come up with a better performance in the World Group.
Not only did India start Friday on a wrong note, but Saturday was even more worse with Rohan Bopanna/Saketh Myneni suffering a shock doubles defeat at the hands of the New Zealand pairing of Marcus Daniell/Artem Sitak.
Hence, India were required to win both the reverse singles match on Sunday while Somdev and Yuki handled pressure well. Their performance on the last day of the tie was top class.
Somdev was hurt after his first singles loss to Micheal Venus in a marathon five sets match, but the Indian star came back into Sunday's reverse singles all guns blazing, as he defeated Daniell in straight sets with the score reading 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
After Somdev's victory, Yuki Bhambri faced Venus in the tie-decider and Bhambri, who had defeated Jose Statham earlier (on Friday) in the tie, showed amazing form to crush Venus in straight sets. It was a clinical performance by the Indian youngster with the score reading 6-2,6-3 and 6-3.
There is no doubt about the talent of Yuki Bhambri, who had won the 2009 Australian Open Juniour Championship, as the Indian showed his true class in the two singles against New Zealand. One might not be wrong to state Bhambri was the best player during the tie.
