India's plan to host Denmark grass courts worked as a straight-sets win for Yuki Bhambri and Ramkumar Ramanathan gave him a 2-0 lead in the World Group I play-off encounter on Friday.
World No. 170 Ramkumar took full advantage of the Danish player's trouble on a low bounce surface after beating Christian Sigsgaard 6-3, 6-2 in the opening singles of the match at the Delhi Gymkhana Club. Bhambri, playing Davis Cup for the first time since 2017, doubled India's lead with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the second singles against Mikel Torpegaard, who fought despite a straight-sets win.
Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will now look to seal the tie for India to play doubles matches against Friedrich Nielsen and Johannes Ingildsson on Saturday. If they win, India will retain their place in World Group I and reverse singles will not be valued.
Coming back from a long injury, Bhambri broke serve in the first game but the world number 305 Dane made a spectacular comeback.
Whether it was a baseline exchange or net servicing and charging, Torpegaard did everything to prevent it from becoming a one-sided affair like the first single. He got a break back in the fourth game and what happened after that was entertaining tennis from both the players. Bhambri once again broke his opponent in the ninth game, but had to save a break point to serve him in the end.
The first game of the second set was the toughest match of the day with five deuce points. It ended with Torpegaard's double mistake and the hard work the Danish player had put in came to naught. Bhambri then took a 4-0 lead.
From there, it seemed like a formality, though Torpegaard kept working hard. Bhambri dropped the serve in the eighth game when he was serving for the match and was soon 4-1 to 5-4. But the Indian made sure there were no more plays as he served the match in the 10th game when Torpegaard could not return the ball with his backhand.
In the first singles, Sigsgaard struggled with his serve, hitting three double faults in the second game of the opening set and a breakpoint down but Ramkumar could not make the most of that opportunity.
Ramkumar used the backhand slice for most of the return and stuck to his serve game. The Dane gave a break in the fourth game when he double-faulted at 30-all, which was converted by the Indian.
The error-prone game made it easy for Ramkumar, who did not serve as much on the grass court and volley as expected. The Indian had three set points in the eighth game but could not score any goal. He sealed the opening set in the next game with a solid serve that Christian could not return while netting a backhand.
In the second set, Sigsgaard blinked first, going 0-40 in the third game. He started with a double fault and Ramkumar put his opponent under more pressure with a brilliant forehand crosscourt return winner. Christian made a comeback.
The Danish player gave a break to the home player when he hit a backhand long at the third breakpoint. There was no end to Christian's struggle and Ramkumar ended the match with an ace in the eighth game after failing to convert four match points in the previous game.