Vishnu Vardhan, one of the key members of the Indian Davis Cup squad for the Asia-Oceania relegation play-off tie against New Zealand, arrived here from Shanghai along with Sanam Singh on Sunday.
With Saketh Myneni and Sriram Balaji having already reached here, the Indian players had a good training session under the supervision of captain S.P. Misra and coach Nandan Bal.
The 25-year-old Vishnu, ranked 266 in the world in singles, said that it had been a fruitful outing for most of the Indian players over the last week in the Shanghai Challenger. He pointed out that the Indian players also got a good look at the playing style of the New Zealanders who were competing in the same tournament.
Two other Indian players, the 20-year-old Yuki Bhambri, ranked 188 in singles, and Divij Sharan ranked 109 in doubles, who had made the doubles final of the Shanghai event were expected to join on Monday.
The Kiwis arrived in strength and the captain Marcel Vos hoped that the absence of some of the experienced players in the Indian squad would be of advantage to his team.
“All players in our team have Davis Cup experience,” said the Kiwi captain even as he stressed that his players, Jose Statham, Michael Venus, Artem Sitak and Daniel King Turner, were competing regularly in the professional circuit and were well prepared for the tie to be played at the Sector-10 Stadium from September 14 to 16.
Acclimatisation
If competing in Asia over the last fortnight was not enough, the Kiwi captain pointed out that five days of training before the tie would help his team acclimatise to the conditions and pave way for a strong performance.
The referee for the tie, Javier Sansierra of Spain also reached the venue. He had visited India earlier in 1997 for the World Group play-off tie against Chile in Delhi.
Chandigarh had last hosted a Davis Cup tie, way back in 1993, and it was the semifinals against Australia.
Keywords: India-New Zealand Davis Cup tie