India will be playing their Davis Cup tie against Pakistan in the neutral location of Nur-Sultan on Friday and Saturday in indoor courts of the National Tennis Center in the capital of Kazakhstan.
India will be playing their Davis Cup tie against Pakistan in the neutral location of Nur-Sultan on Friday and Saturday in indoor courts of the National Tennis Center in the capital of Kazakhstan.
While India look to win every match against neighbours, the biggest challenge ahead of them is not the opposition but the weather.
The November-end temperatures in the country are reaching as low as - 20 degrees and the players have to acclimatise to the extreme conditions outside.
While the courts have heating systems, the extreme cold outside and knee-deep snow presents a unique challenge for the team.
“The biggest issue is the weather, getting acclimatised to these conditions is never easy especially in terms of injuries, the warm-ups and cool-downs that need to go on,” team coach Zeeshan Ali said from Nur-Sultan.
“We have been focussing a lot on that, making sure the boys stay healthy… they have been playing a lot of matches. I am not worried about the game part of it, if they stay healthy I think we should be all right.
“The boys are hitting the ball well, we have had some great sessions after we have come here. Of course, adjusting from outdoors to indoors is not very difficult, it’s difficult the other way round. Our players are professional and have played on all kinds of surfaces so that is not an issue,” he explained.
Newly-appointed team captain Rohit Rajpal also said that the team has done well to get used to the conditions.
“The biggest challenge was to get used to the minus 12-15 degrees cold, the snow and the weather conditions here. The boys have adjusted quite well in the last two days and we are all shaping up well and looking forward to a good time,” he said.
“The warm-up and cool-down sessions are important and the entire team goes through these regimens religiously as it’s important to be fit and avoid injuries due to severe cold conditions,” he added.
Sumit Nagal said that the weather conditions were just another part of playing tennis word over.
“I think it’s a fun challenge. There a lot of times we have tough situations in tennis but you have to fight it out. The good part is we are playing indoors, the last tie I played in China we played outdoor around 1-2 degrees Celsius.”
The winner of the tie will make it to the 2020 Davis Cup Qualifiers where they will be up against Croatia, from where the winning team will strive to make it to the World Group.
(Inputs from Agencies)
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