It’s 50-50 v Sweden: India captain Rajpal

Rohit Rajpal

India's top players might be missing from the line-up but the country's Davis Cup team would still fancy its chances for a maiden victory against Sweden when it clashes with the host in the World Group I contest, starting September 14.

India has not beaten Sweden in Davis Cup history and has landed in Stockholm without its best singles and doubles players - Sumit Nagal and Yuki Bhambri - for contrasting reasons.

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Yet, the side would back itself to buck the trend in the sixth attempt, considering that the Swedish line-up is not intimidating. It will not be a surprise if captain Rohit Rajpal asks doubles specialist Balaji to do the singles duty, just like in the previous tie against Pakistan on the grass court. "We have better servers, and our players like to get in, play shorter points but these are medium-speed courts, so we are getting used to it by playing a lot of singles with each other," said Rajpal.

"If Yuki and Sumit were here, the tie would have tilted towards us, now it's 50-50. Leo Borg [second singles player] has improved a lot, we are watching him. They have a tough doubles team." Asked about Poonacha's injury, Rajpal said, "He is much better and the physio is confident that he should be fine for the matches."

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