Bangalore: Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes today said that the dramatic victory he pulled off along with partner Rohan Bopanna against formidable Serbians was the best comeback effort of his Davis Cup career.
Paes and Bopanna overcame a two-set deficit to beat Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bojolzac in a thrilling five-setter.
“Specifically talking about doubles, this is the best I had had in Davis Cup. In singles, I have many like against Korea and many others but winning against this team, the most formidable teams, the best I have,” Paes said at the post-match press conference.
Paes also admitted that Zimonjic having a back problem in the third set did affect the Serbians.
“It had a minimal effect on his psychology and we picked it up from there. It gave us three minutes to gather and captain (Anand) told us to slow things down, everything is going fast,” he said.
Paes said he and Bopanna gelled well on court despite not having played together for long and he was looking forward to play with him at Rio Olympics in 2016.
“It's big result. We can build on this. His game and my game suits perfect.”
However, Paes said he was committed to play with other partners in 2015 season and also made it clear that he will not play in the Asian Games since he has already signed to play in Kuala Lumpur.
Bopanna said Paes' passion and crowd support kept him going.
“Leander thrives in situations like this. No doubt the energy was great. Crowd support was a huge factor. I started to serve much better,” he said.
Non-playing captain Anand Amritraj said he expects Somdev Devvarman to play his best match tomorrow to beat Dusan Lajovic and keep India alive.
“Somdev will have to come out and play his best. He gives his 150 percent whether it a Challenger or Davis Cup. He did some mistakes in his last match and he should not be doing that tomorrow,” he said.
Amritraj said today's win was the most amazing comeback he has ever seen.
