* Lack of fitness, skills come to fore again as Nagal, Ramanathan lose * Spain complete 5-0 whitewash of India
More than the loss in his first reverse singles tie to a part-time singles player Marc Lopez, this was a first big lesson on fitness at the senior level for 19-year-old Sumit Nagal.
It was only after a dead rubber against Ukraine in 2013 that doubles specialist Lopez was asked by Spain to come out and play a singles game in order to give some rest to others under Delhi's intense humidity. And the 34-year-old veteran came out and displayed much better fitness levels against India's junior Wimbledon doubles champion on Sunday.
At a time when Nagal was up 3-0 and 40-15 in the third and deciding set, the Indian was left short of breath before surrendering the next six games in his debut Davis Cup tie against Spain in the World Group play-offs here at the RK Khanna stadium on Sunday. Nagal's 3-6 6-1 3-6 loss to Lopez helped visitors increase their lead to 4-0. It became 5-0 without much sweat after David Ferrer brushed aside Ramkumar Ramanathan.
Tasked to play the dead reverse singles encounter after Spain took an unassailable 3-0 lead after Saturday's doubles match, Nagal got enough crowd support behind him. Though he had a poor first set, losing 3-6 but he came back strongly to stun his senior opponent 6-1 to draw the parity.
In fact, Nagal took eight consecutive games from 1-1 in the second set to display potential for the future. But it was his fitness that robbed him of what could well have been a historic debut win against the mighty Spaniards. The 19-year-old from Jhajjar district of Haryana now trains in Germany for last few years and that's why he was as strange to the humid conditions of Delhi as his counterpart.
"The humidity was such that I felt my lungs choking in the third set," said Nagal after the match. "Even Marc was feeling the heat but he was probably two per cent better than me at that point of time."
Ramanathan no match to Ferrer
In the last tie, Chennai lad Ramanathan hardly showed any resistance before losing his second match of the tie to a much superior Ferrer 2-6 2-6 in one hour and eleven minutes.
The 21-year-old Indian was broken right in the beginning. However, he also got one up over the World No. 11 when the later committed a double fault to concede the game. But his joy was short-lived as the Spaniard grabbed his second consecutive break in the very next game and never looked back. Ferrer broke No. 206 ranked Indian again in the eighth game to grab the first set.
The second, however, saw some better rallies between the two. Both players held on to their serves initially before Ferrer broke Ramanathan's serve in the sixth game to take 4-2 lead.
"It has been a great learning experience. Playing two singles for your country is a big honour and playing against such great players is always good. I know I have to work on a lot of aspects now and that will only come from playing more and more matches, from experience. I will now go back to Europe and play several tournaments," Ramanathan said.
Results: M Lopez bt S Nagal 6-3 1-6 6-3, D Ferrer bt R Ramanathan 6-2 6-2; Spain win 5-0
DID YOU KNOW?
The last time India suffered a whitewash in the Davis Cup was in 2003 against the Netherlands in an away World Group Play-offs tie
N ZONE
21 No. of times India have been whitewashed in the history of Davis Cup
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