It was a comeback of epic proportions. A kind that Leander Paes admitted he hadn’t been a part of in a doubles match in his entire 24 years of Davis Cup career.
Non-playing captain Anand Amritraj, a doubles semi-finalist at Wimbledon, said, “In the last 20-25 years, this is the most amazing comeback that I’ve seen.”
Arguably, no Indian tennis player has mastered the art of soaking up pressure better than Paes, on or off the court. And it’s of the infectious kind, which often rubs onto his partner.
And on Saturday night, Paes and his partner Rohan Bopanna not just absorbed all the pressure, they flourished on it. Going into the third rubber with 0-2 down must have been crushing in itself. And as if that was not enough, they were staring at two sets down with a break down in the third. The Serbian duo of Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac were cranking it up. And before the Indian players could realise the scoreboard read 1-6, 6-7(4-7), 2-3. In the fifth game, Paes’s serve came under severe attack and two double faults made matter worse.
Any other pair would have wilted but not the one with Paes in it. They had a quick huddle with captain Anand during the changeover and were told to slow down the pace of the match. At this point, Rohan decided to change his racquet. He went for one that was strung for the last US Open. “It was an old racquet but I felt comfortable with it and by the end of third set I started serving better,” Rohan said later.
One more thing happened around the same time, Serbia’s Zimonjic sprained his neck while going for a backhand volley. “I heard some noise in my neck and thereafter my neck movement got little restricted,” Zimonjic later explained.
Team India broke back immediately when Zimonjic, who was serving, failed to control Rohan’s crushing forehand crosscourt return and hit it long. India levelled at 3-3.
Rohan, who until then was relentlessly attacked by both Zimonjic and Bozoljac, especially his backhand, by now had started finding his game back. “When Rohan leads from the front, takes advantage of his big frame to cover the court, he’s a different player altogether. And he did that in the third, fourth and fifth set,” Leander said. The senior partner had hit the nail on the head.
With the change of racquet, Rohan was a changed player. He was moving better and closing the angles on the opponents. He was now reaching out to balls that were earlier getting past him. And his volleys were more crisp and accurate.
Rohan held his serve with a service winner that clocked 205 kmph to give India 4-3 lead. It was time for Leander to go for the jugular against Bozoljac’s serve. Paes opened the court with a stinging forehand crosscourt return and Bopanna finished the point with a deft volley. Later, Paes hustled Bozoljac’s second serve and produced a sparkling forehand down the line return to break the Serb.
The Indian veteran had begun to cast his spell on the opponents. He promptly held his serve to win the third set 6-3.
From abysmal darkness, there suddenly emerged a faint glimmer of hope. Can India come back from here. It was a toughIndia’s Leander Paes and his daughter Aiyana watch the play of teammate Somdev Devvarman against Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn during their Davis Cup World Group first round tennis match in Moscow March 5, 2010. REUTERS/Grigory Dukor ask. The crowd was smelling a semblance of possibility in the air. The DJ was threatening to bring down the roof with AR Rahman’s celebrated ‘Jai Ho’ song.
Zimonjic gave Team India the much needed second wind they were looking for. He dropped the first game of the fourth set and thereafter the Indian duo were firmly in the saddle. They had begun to find their serves and range of shots.
In the ninth game, Zimonjic’s serve came under heavy attack yet again. And this time the Serbian stalwart cracked again with three double faults. India won the fourth set 6-3 to level the match at two sets all.
The crowd erupted into Mexican waves that refused to die down till the chair umpire intervened.
The fifth set went on serve, as both Rohan and Paes started feeding off crowd’s vociferous support and served at their best. In the seventh game, Rohan came up with three explosive aces on the trot. Paes followed with an impressive service game, which Rohan helped to seal with a dazzling forehand down the line winner.
India’s comeback king, Paes, along with Rohan, scripted yet another monumental victory.
“Momentum is a funny thing,” Anand said after the match. It indeed is. And despite trailing 1-2 in the Davis Cup tie, the momentum is now with India.