Holger Rune beats Yuki Bhambri to give Denmark the lead

India were expectedly pegged back by Holger Rune, the world No 9 fast-rising teen, in the opening rubber of their Davis Cup World Group I play-off tie against Denmark in Hillerod, Denmark on Friday.

Yuki Bhambri, India’s former top-100 singles pro who has shifted focus to doubles on the professional tour, was no match to the 19-year-old Dane in a 6-2, 6-2 defeat that ended in just 58 minutes.

Playing the tie on indoor hard courts, India captain Rohit Rajpal chose to bench higher-ranked singles players in Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan and instead fielded Bhambri, 30, and Sumit Nagal, who lined up for the second singles tie against 484th-ranked August Holmgren in a near must-win proposition.

Playing in front of a sizeable crowd to have filled up the indoor Royal Stage amid temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius, it was a good hold by Bhambri to begin with. But it all unravelled pretty quickly after that as Rune, who won three ATP titles last year including one beating Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters final, took over.

The teen got a break in the third game after Bhambri sprayed a forehand wide after netting a straightforward overhead. That the Indian hasn’t played a lot of singles lately—Bhambri only played a couple of qualifying matches at the ATP Tata Open Maharashtra this year—was evident in his sluggish on-court movement.

The 30-year-old Indian was consistently slow on the ball and even while he tried to serve and volley and approach the net more often, he found little success as Rune was up a double break up and India a set down in no time.

The second set followed a similar pattern in terms of a couple of breaks. Rune was also having some fun now in front of his home fans, and thus came out a tweener that also won him a point and an in-curving, line-kissing forehand down-the-line winner on the run.

India had beaten Denmark in March last year at home, a clinical 4-0 victory on the grass courts of the Delhi Gymkhana Club. But that was a visiting Danish side without Rune while this is the home team with its top gun not only present but also firing on all cylinders. And with India’s singles armoury deteriorating, the task was only made that much harder for the visitors this time.

Bhambri will team up with Rohan Bopanna, the 2023 Australian Open mixed doubles finalist, for the doubles tie against Johannes Ingildsen and Christian Sigsgaard on Saturday before the reverse singles fixtures.