Davis Cup: Bopanna wins singles, Lim prevents clean sweep by India

Chandigarh Not used to playing singles anymore Indias Rohan Bopanna found rhythm in nick of time to edge past Hong Chung before YongKyu Lim prevented a Korean whitewash with a gritty win over Ramkumar Ramanathan in the Davis Cup AsiaOceania Group I tie here todayIndias Rohan Bopanna plays a return during his singles match against South Koreas Hong Chung Pic AFPAsked to take court in place of Saketh Myneni who is still recovering from his gruelling match on Friday Bopanna laboured to a 36 64 64 win against Chung who is ranked as low as 655 in the ATP rankingsBopanna last played a singles match in the Davis Cup in 2012 when he won the dead fifth rubber against Uzbekistaniquests Sarvar IkramovIt was 10th singles win for Bopanna in Davis Cup today and thankfully it was a dead rubber since India had sealed tie on Saturday itself by wining the doublesPlaying the dead fifth rubber 217ranked Ramkumar lost the close contest 36 64 672 in little over two hours to Lim who is placed 409 rungs below the IndianDespite losing the tie 14 the Koreans have to be credited for making life tough for the Indians They were playing on an alien surface but fought their hearts out in the tieAll Indian players performed a popular Bollywood number Bayee Wahiquest immediately after Lim closed the tie much to the surprise and delight of the fansIndia will now make its third attempt to qualify for the elite 16nation World Group They await the results of the World Group matches to know the rival in the playoffs to be held in SeptemberIndia last played in World Group in 2011 when it lost the first round against Serbia After that they have lost playoffs twice iquest against Serbia in 2014 Bangalore and Czech Republic in 2015 New Delhi Army man Lim who lost to Myneni recovered remarkably from the spasm he suffered on Friday and played clean tennis to beat RamkumarLim broke Ramkumar in the fourth game and served out the opening set in the ninth game in which he also saved a break chance after the Indian had saved three set pointsIn the second set Lim again had a chance to go up but the Indian saved a break chance in the seventh game to hold The 21yearold lad from Chennai kept fighting and finally broke Lim in the 12th to make it oneall Ramkumar grew in confidence and started to play much better He broke Lim in the sixth game for a 42 lead but was broken while serving for the match in the ninth as he served a double faultThat proved costly as Lim stretched it to tiebreaker in which he prevailed Earlier lack of singles match practice was evident in Bopannaiquests match as he heavily relied on his booming serve but Chung refused to be intimidated and posed a good challenge before the IndianBopanna peppered Chung with aces firing 27 in all in the onehour 23minute match It was his big serve that rescued him as he struggled with precision in his ground strokes as he was covering the entire court in a match after a long timeBopanna initially lost all points on his serve on double faults His fifth double fault followed by a backhand into the net meant that the Korean had the chance to draw first blood The crafty lefthander sent down a forehand winner to take the offer much to the shock of the Indian camp and home fansBopanna again failed to put across a volley that crashed on to the net to hand Chung his first set point Under pressure Bopanna made a forehand error and the Koreans had smiles on their facesThe Indian struggling with his ground strokes was broken early in the second set that put Chung ahead 30 However a break in the seventh game brought Bopanna back in the matchChung sent a forehand to net to be down 3040 but managed to save two breakpoints Bopanna smashed a crosscourt backhand winner to earn his third chance and converted it with a forehand volley winnerAt 44 he again broke Chung in the ninth game and served out the set in the next game The tall Indian had a chance to go up early in the third set as he had Chung down at 040 but could convert none of the three chancesChung took a medical timeout to treat his left shoulder after the third game in the final set Bopanna broke him in the fifth game and retained the lead to serve out the match with an ace