India's Davis Cup skipper Anand Amritraj says Yuki Bhambri must utilise his big frame to send down booming serves if he wants to fare better in his tennis career
Yuki Bhambri and Anand Amritraj
Incheon: India's Davis Cup skipper Anand Amritraj says Yuki Bhambri must utilise his big frame to send down booming serves if he wants to fare better in his tennis career. The 22-year-old Delhi lad won two bronze medals -- men's singles and men's doubles with Divij Sharan -- at the ongoing Asian Games.
Yuki Bhambri and Anand Amritraj
"He's a big guy, almost my size, and he should be able to serve at 200kms an hour, but he's in the 170-180. To beat someone like Japan's Nishioka (to whom he lost in three sets in semis) you need to overpower that guy. He did well off the ground but the serve would have got him a lot more free points," Amritraj said.
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"I told him that him he needs to find somebody who can improve the mechanics of his serve - to get another 20kms an hour on it - and he will be a much better player. I definitely feel he can serve at that pace. I have seen Ramkumar (Ramanathan) who is much thinner, serving is at 205-210 km per hour, so there¿s no reason Yuki can't serve bigger."
Amritraj added that he would look out for a service coach for Yuki. "Having said that he hit his ground strokes well, he could volley better, needs to work on his volleys, tends to push it a little bit. I was much happier here with him here than I was in Davis Cup when he did not perform at all," said Amritraj.
Asked whether India would have done better had big guns like Leander Paes and Roahn Bopanna competed here, Amritraj said things have panned out as well as they could even in their absence.
"I think it would not be a lot different had they come. We can't rely on those guys for the rest of our lives. One guy Paes) is 41 and one¿s (Rohan) 34, how long more?" Amritraj said he cannot comment on the women's performance here though from the evidence it seemed there was a world of a difference between the rest of Asia and India.
He said finding the most suitable second singles player for Davis Cup play was his concern. "The older guys Rohan (Bopanna) and Leander (Paes) are there only for the doubles. We have to win four singles in Davis Cup. I am more worried about that. We have Somdev but we still need Yuki to step up, Ramkumar to step up. I need
someone other than Somdev to be in the top 100-150."
"They should be playing more Challengers than Futures. Ramkumar is winning Futures every week but they are at the bottom rung of the ladder. They need to play Challengers need to play qualifiers in events like the one in Kuala Lumpur."
He said he was not concerned about Somdev's ranking since he was a much better and gutsier player than what the number indicates. "Ranking does not indicate how good a player he is. He's a gutsy player We saw it in Bangalore. He has pulled so many Davis Cup matches."
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