Mumbai: Spain splashed India out of Davis Cup by 5-0 margin at the DLTA courts on Sunday to cement their place in the World World matches to be held in 2017.
On Sunday night, the visitors completed a 5-0 whitewash and it was done in an utterly convincing way. Rather, the lead of 3-0 was already established on Saturday night itself and Sunday gave another chance to show off in glory.
Throughout the week, the entire Indian camp which includes the players, the coaches and the staff realised that they were facing an uphill task as they were facing the five-time Davis Cup champions, Spain, which had in ranks someone as deadly as Rafael Nadal.
And to make things worse for the Indian Camp, the Spanish team arrived with the players with the intention of winning the cup yet again. The Spanish team selection did surprise quite a few, given it was a Playoff against a team which already was trying hard in the absence of its top players.
Ramkumar Ramanathan lost in straight sets 2-6, 2-6 to David Ferrer making it a quick game. And Earlier in the day, Sumit Nagal also lost to Marc Lopez and gave a tough competition making the game of three sets 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
The Indian doubles pairing of Leander Paes and Saketh Myneni gave quite an amazing performance against Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez of Spain, but were brought down in four sets by the Spanish men in their Davis Cup World Group playoff match in Delhi on Saturday.
The Spaniards won the match 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4. The match was a very tough one and lasted over three hours and 20 minutes.
The last time India suffered such a fate of not winning even a single match was in 2003 against the Netherlands in the Away World Group play off. And this horrific loss is India’s 21st time.