Today, Indian Rohan Bopanna found rhythm at the right time to edge past Hong Chung before Yong-Kyu Lim prevented a Korean whitewash with a gritty win over Ramkumar Ramanathan in the Davis Cup Asia\Oceania Group I tie here.
Bopanna takes the court in place of Saketh Myneni who is still recovering from his gruelling match on Friday. Rohan Bopanna win against Chung to a 3-6 6-4 6-4. Chung is ranked as low as 655 in the ATP rankings.
Rohan Bopanna played last match in the Davis Cup in 2012 when he won against Sarvar Ikramov, Uzbekistan.
Playing the dead fifth rubber, Ramkumar who is at 217-rank, lost to Lim who is placed 409 rungs below the Indian in the close contest 3-6 6-4 6-7(2) in little over two hours.
Despite losing the tie 1-4 , the Koreans made life tough for the Indians. The Koreans were playing on an alien surface but they fought their hearts out in the tie.
All Indian players performed a popular Bollywood number ‘Bayee Wah’, immediately after Lim closed the tie, it was surprise and delight of the fans.
Now, India will make its third attempt to qualify for the elite 16-nation World Group. India is waiting for the results of the World Group matches to know the rival in the play-offs which is to be held in September.
India last played in last World Group in 2011 when India lost the first round against Serbia. Since, India have lost play-offs twice – against Serbia in 2014, Bangalore and Czech Republic in 2015, New Delhi.
Army man Lim lost to Myneni early. But Lim recovered remarkably from the spasm. He suffered on Friday. Lim played clean tennis to beat Ramkumar.
Lim broke Ramkumar in the fourth game and in the ninth game, he served out the opening set in which he also saved a break chance after the Indian had saved three set points.
The Chennai boy who is 21-year-old kept fighting and finally broke Lim in the 12th to make it one-all.
Ramkumar came in confidence and started to play much better. Ramkumar broke Lim in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead.
That proved costly as Lim stretched it to tie-breaker in which he prevailed.
