Davis Cup

Siddharth, coach Ashutosh and Aryan at the DLTA
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

They may not have an intimidating presence on court, but Siddharth Vishwakarma and Aryan Shah can be menacing in their own different ways.

Both Siddharth and Aryan had a good work out under the guidance of coach Ashutosh Singh at the DLTA on Thursday as they prepared in earnest for the Davis Cup World Group tie to be played on indoor hard courts in Stockholm on September 14 and 15.

The wiry Siddharth, the reigning national champion, can really whip the ball both with his serve and strokes. He does play an entertaining brand of tennis. On the other hand, the young Aryan, who had lived up to his early ambition of competing in all four Grand Slams in the junior events, has been learning fast on the pro circuit around the world.

Coach Ashutosh said the rest of the team — Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sriram Balaji, Niki Poonacha and Manas Dhamne — would assemble directly in Stockholm from different tournaments.

The Indian team is scheduled to leave in the early hours of Saturday in an attempt to get enough time to acclimatise and play the best tennis in the tie against Sweden, which for once looks beatable.

Even without the services of the No. 1 player, the 73rd ranked Sumit Nagal, India could have a memorably competitive tie as Sweden does not have any player in the top-200 of singles.

Aryan, who keeps a tab on all the players he watches in the circuit, said that he had not seen the 225th ranked Elias Ymer, Sweden’s No. 1 player.

Interestingly, Aryan had played doubles with another member of the Swedish team, Leo Borg, son of Bjorn Borg. The duo reached the final.

Leo is ranked 772 in singles. The second singles player for Sweden, Adam Heinonen, is ranked 757. The Swedes do have a strong doubles team in Andre Goransson and Filip Bergevi, ranked 67 and 126 respectively.

Conceding that the idea was to prepare strong, approach the tie with an open mind, and play the best possible tennis, coach Ashutosh said he had to arrange for a practice session in the middle of the day to get some tennis, after rain had washed out the session on Wednesday evening.

“We have been trying to play in the evening to get used to playing under lights. Because of rain, we decided to get some training at least when there was sunshine, apart from persisting with the evening session,” said Ashutosh, who has been closely observing both the players with a keen eye to enhance their strengths.

Aryan was understandably pleased with the turn of events that has catapulted him into the playing section of the Davis Cup squad so early in his career. The 19-year-old sounded confident of playing his part well if called for duty on court.

If anything, the Davis Cup tie against Sweden could provide a hint about the future of Indian tennis.