Another disappointment followed as N Sriram Balaji went down to Pedja Krstin in straight sets ending India’s Davis World Group Play-off tie against Serbia without a win, losing all the four games that culminated with Balaji’s defeat in Kraljevo on Sunday.
With Serbia sealing the tie with an unassailable 3-0 lead from the first three games, both the teams decided to nominate the fringe players and therefore India fielded Balaji in-stead of Ramkumar Ramanathan, while Serbia played Krstin in place of Dusan Lajovic.
The scoreline in the end though remained the same as Balaji lost 3-6, 1-6 in 66 minutes at the Kraljevo Sports Venue to end what was a disappointing tour for the Indians. The contest was called off after the fourth rubber with both the teams deciding against playing the dead fifth rubber.
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“It was not a bad match for me. In every service game, I had game points but I was not sharp enough to take them. Even most of the return games were close. The scoreline looks easy for him but we had long games,” Balaji told PTI after the defeat.
“Before going into the tie, we thought we had a chance of beating them. But they came up strong in every match,” he added.
The 4-0 scoreline meant India now have lost four out of five meetings with Serbia, whom they had last defeated 1927, at a time the country was called Yugoslavia.
This, however, looked India’s best chance to set the contest somewhat alright, especially with Serbia missing two of its top two players in 2018 Wimbledon and US Open winner Novak Djokovic and the injured Filip Krajinovic in their line-up but India failed to make most of it.
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