Russians in command in Moscow

No sweat for Mikhail Youzhny against India’s Rohan Bopanna as Russia surge to a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup tie.

A traditional Russian salute by Mikhail Youzhny on Friday evening pretty much summed up the opening day of the first-round Davis Cup World Group encounter against India. After a three-and-a-half hour marathon match that featured two players outside the Top 100 - Somdev Devvarman and Igor Kunitsyn, world No.13 Youzhny showed his class, keeping it simple, short and sweet. The second singles rubber lasted for only an hour and 42 minutes in stark contrast to the opening match at the Small Sports Arena "Luzhniki”.

Bopanna impressed with his big serves firing 10 aces along with surprisingly consistent free-flowing groundstrokes. But, when it came to the crunch points, Bopanna’s world ranking of No.416 stood exposed. The Indian’s 47 unforced errors to Youzhny’s 17 showed the gulf between the two.

Youzhny, playing Bopanna for the first time, had to break just once in the seventh game to take the first set 6-4 while two breaks in the fourth and the sixth games, respectively wrapped up the second set 6-2 in Russia’s favour. The third ended when Bopanna netted a volley. The result was a clean 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 win for the Dubai Championships runner-up.

Earlier, Kunitsyn prevailed in four sets against Somdev to give Russia a 1-0 lead in the tie. India’s No.1 player, Somdev had to do more than just play a four-set match in the first-round Davis Cup encounter against Kunitysn. The 25-year-old Indian was forced to literally run a marathon race on either side of of the court in a tight 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 3-6, 4-6 loss to the Russian, who is ranked 21 rungs above him. The chilling challenge in the first singles rubber turned out to be a high-octane encounter on Friday afternoon. Winning the long rally that opened the tie, Kunitsyn, a last-minute replacement for world No. 38 Igor Andreev (pulled out due to injury), gave away early signs that he’s no pushover.

28-year-old Kunitsyn, the Russian world No. 107, displayed lovely touch at the net early on and soon the first break-point came in the fourth game on Somdev’s serve which he converted to go ahead 3-1. The battle, however, began when the Indian No.1 broke back immediately to keep the opening set on serve until it was decided in the tie-breaker. Somdev wrong-footed the Russian with a deceptive volley to take the first set 8-6 in the breaker.

With that momentum, Somdev raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but let it slip away. Kunitsyn turned the tables from thereon, sealing the second set 7-4 in the tie-breaker. The net approaches by Kunitsyn, 23 in all, clearly unsettled Som. As a few bad calls bothered Somdev in the second half of the match, the Russian took advantage of the situation to close out the third set 6-3, for a 2-1 lead in the rubber.

Somdev was left regretting as a visibly tiring Kunitsyn just about managed to serve out the fourth set 6-4. He did that with his trademark forehand drop shot - the shot that kept the Indian at bay.

With India trailing 0-2, it’s now up to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi to keep the tie alive for the visitors. Lee-Hesh duo will take on Kunitsyn and Teimuraz Gabashvili in the doubles rubber on Saturday.