Paris
India’s Leander Paes went down fighting as his dream of crowning his 30-year Davis Cup career with a place at the finals ended Saturday while Ecuador and Italy reached the November showpiece, triumphing in empty arenas locked down because of the coronavirus crisis.
Paes, 46, has played for India in every Davis Cup season bar one since his debut in 1990 but went to the qualifier tie in Zagreb against two-time champions Croatia having already announced that 2020 would be his last year on tour.
With India trailing 2-0 overnight, Paes rolled back the years, linking up with 40-year-old Rohan Bopanna to defeat Mate Pavic and Franko Skugor 6-3, 6-7 (9/11), 7-5 to keep their country’s faint hopes of making the finals alive.
However, former US Open champion Marin Cilic then ruthlessly crushed that ambition with a quickfire 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Sumit Nagal.
“This was going to be my last match but the captain (Rohit Rajpal) said something to me after the match,” Paes told daviscup.com, hinting that he could still play in the September play-offs.
“I will leave it to the captain because whoever plays, the best thing needs to be done and the best decision needs to be made.”
It was a sweet Davis Cup farewell for US doubles duo Bob and Mike Bryan in Hawaii.
The twin brothers, playing what they said would be their last Davis Cup tie, defeated Sanjar Fayziev and Denis Istomin 6-3, 6-4 in just 67 minutes to give the United States an unassailable 3-0 lead over Uzbekistan.
Reilly Opelka had beaten Istomin 6-2, 7-5 and Taylor Fritz beat Fayziev 6-1, 6-2 on Friday to put 32-time winners United States on the road to victory.—AFP
