Doubles play in tennis demands implicit coordination between partners.
For the first two-and-a half sets on Saturday, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna failed to do that and as a result struck a discordant note.
But ultimately they hung on, pulling themselves back to defeat Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic 1-6, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3, 8-6 in two hours and 58 minutes and keep India alive in the World Group play-off tie. Serbia now leads 2-1 with Sunday’s reverse singles to come.
Until the end of the fourth set, it was a game of two parts. The Serbian duo breezed through the first set 6-1. The three times Paes and Bopanna were broken they collected a paltry three points.
With four players on court, doubles doesn’t leave too many safe areas to exploit. But for most part of the first two sets, Zimonjic and Bozoljac often drew Bopanna wide and ensured that Paes was left to man the entire court.
Bopanna was the weak link in the second set as well. His half-volley pick-ups, when the balls were drilled to his shoelaces, more often than not popped up for the easy put-away. His volleying ranked only marginally better.
The Serbians on their part blew hot and cold. Bozoljac, with an unpredictability to match Bangalore’s weather, was broken early to give India a 3-1 lead. Yet after Serbia found a way to level at 4-4, he played his best service game to hold to 5-4.
Later in the tie-break, Bopanna’s weaknesses — the pick-up and the volley — appeared in tandem, while trailing 4-5, to help Serbia move ahead.
Then, when Serbia broke to 3-2 in the third set, it seemed as if India had to reconcile itself to at least another year in the Asia-Oceania Group I competition.
But the silver lining appeared in the form of a neck injury to Zimonjic.
Serbia lost its way from there. From a break down at 2-3, the Indian combo reeled off four games in a row to take the set 6-3. Then, an early break of serve in the fourth halted the crowd in its steps, for some had already begun to make a beeline towards the exit gate.
Zimonjic’s problems while serving meant that the serves which were loaded with vicious top spin in the first two sets, now seemed bereft of any venom. He double-faulted on break point at 3-5 to hand India the set.
In the fifth, however, the Serbian duo regained some of the lost ground. Zimonjic loosened up and served better. Even his stretch volleys, which had earlier drifted wide and long, landed inside the court.
But, the Indians’ game had improved, too. Paes — whose serving was perhaps the only jarring note — was as canny as ever at the net.
It rubbed off on Bopanna and led to what was arguably the shot of the match — a masterful half-volley pick guided for a cross-court winner in the 10th game.
The decisive break came when Zimonjic was serving at 6-7. A double fault at 15-30 gave India a match point and a Zimonjic forehand that went wide, the match.
With the victory, India lives to fight another day.
