After a dismal performance on the opening day of the Davis Cup World Group I tie in Sweden, the Indian non-playing team captain Rohit Rajpal shared his thoughts on the matches with the media. India is down 0-2 to the Swedes, with doubles specialist Sriram Balaji being pulled in to play singles in the first tie, which he lost 4-6 2-6. While 332nd ranked Ramkumar Ramanathan lost the second match against 603rd ranked Leo Borg 3-6 4-6.

The tie moves to the doubles on Saturday, with Sriram Balaji and Ramkumar Ramanathan expected to take on Filip Bergevi and Andre Goransson. Interview with Rohit Rajpal below –

Q) You had spoken before the match about how you wanted to index more on serve and volley. But this was a slow court, and in both of the matches, especially in the second set, you could see that we were losing a lot more points on the net than we were winning. So how was your guidance to both of the players on net game as we approached the end of both the matches?

Rohit Rajpal – No, you see, the thing is that the idea was to come in at the right time, not just go to the net for the sake of going, but find the right opportunity and come in.

But credit to the Swedes, because I think there were a few chances where we really tested them, otherwise we really didn’t test them under pressure. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take the pressure to them. That was the plan.

But yeah, the courts and the balls were a little fluffy, so they were sitting up a little bit. But you have to understand that we were not going to beat these guys from the back anyway. We had to do something different to come and play our agenda more than allow them to do what they need to do with us.

Q) We were talking to Balaji after the last match where he said he was uncomfortable playing singles. How do you think about giving the younger blood a chance – Aryan Shah or Manas Dhamne?

Rohit Rajpal – The whole idea of bringing them here is to expose them. But, you know, today things went totally the opposite of what we thought things would go. So, I think it was a very bad day in office as far as Bala (Sriram Balaji) was concerned because he just had a bad day.

He just didn’t time things well. So unfortunately, we couldn’t take the pressure there at all. In case of Ramkumar, he broke in the first game and he had his chances, but unfortunately couldn’t convert and take the lead. We wanted to take a lead and hold on to it. That didn’t happen. But it looks easier than it’s out there. Credit to Borg (Leo) as well, he came out with some unbelievable shots.

He took his chances – second serve aces, sometimes luck favors the brave. So he did that and today it favored him. Every time he had a chance, the guy came up with a big second serve.

Q) But half of the tie is still remaining. So what’s the strategy and plans for tomorrow (Sunday)?

Rohit Rajpal – We are going to fight till the last ball. We are going to regroup today and take it one match at a time. There have been many instances when the tie has turned around. We have doubles tomorrow and we will come back with a fresh strategy.