Yuki Bhambri beat Finn Tearney in straight sets to give India a winning start in the Davis Cup tie against New Zealand on Friday. The opening match was a cruise, but tougher challenges await Yuki, who missed much of 2016 due to injuries, writes Jonathan Selvaraj.
Yuki Bhambri has just hit the shot of the match. Playing the first match of India's Davis Cup tie, he and New Zealand's Finn Tearney are trading forehand punches off the baseline. Then Yuki seems to have left open space on his right and Tearney smacks one into the gap. Racing along the white line, Yuki swings his racquet at full stretch. The ball streaks down the line for a winner before Tearney can even consider attempting a backhand return.
'Woahh!!' go the few hundred spectators at the tennis stadium at Pune's Balewadi sports complex. Yuki's corner rises to their feet and applauds. The next point has Yuki crunch out a crosscourt forehand to set up an easy winner. More cheers and claps. A kicking serve forces an error. Yuki is leading 6-4, 6-4 up a break at 4-3 and serving at 40-0. In complete control.
That's right until the next shot. The cannon like forehand sets it up again. Tierney stretches and makes a weak return that bounces helpfully with a near vacant court. Yuki lines it up and blasts the ball a couple of meters over the baseline. 'Oooh,' comes the collective groan. Yuki throws his head back and grimaces in acknowledgement. He is at it again, attempting a cheeky backhand slice to a nothing return that floats as far as the base of the net. More sighs. Tierney doesn't get to deuce, though. A more conservative forehand winner sees to that.
Yuki, 24, will go on to win the match 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. He blasts unforced errors by the dozen and makes up for them with forehand winners. In the second set, he would pass Tierney with a double-handed backhand and then commit a double fault. It's a performance that's exhilarating but nearly as frustrating.
A bit like Yuki's career, in fact. Yuki would argue, however, on the side of frustration. The Kiwi is a journeyman, ranked 414 in the world. Tierney isn't really a player he should be trading with on anything but favourable terms.
There are mitigating factors, however. Yuki is coming off a disastrous 2016. He was ranked a career-best 88 going into the year. Then the tendons of his right elbow gave way. 'Tennis elbow,' they call it. He played with painkillers and lost at the Australian Open. He pulled out tournaments. Others he entered and then pulled out midway. Eight months gone. His is a fragile body. By his own reckoning, Yuki has had just the one full season out of six in his senior career.
"Yuki is a player who has the potential to be in the top-50 in the world. In the past due to bad luck with injuries, he has not enjoyed the fruits of being in the top-100 for a longer period of time," Davis cup coach Zeeshan Ali had once said. "Yuki has the attitude and the capability to be back in the top 100 where he belongs should he remain fit," he had said.
Yuki isn't top hundred. He wraps a supporting black band on the troublesome hinge. But he is patched up for now. He began the year at 532 and is currently 376. But he has steadily gotten better. He went through two rounds of qualifying, including against world no. 110 Nicolas Kicker before beating teammate Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-1, 6-1 in January at the Chennai Open. On his return to Melbourne Park, he won two qualifying rounds in straight sets before falling short one round ahead of the main draw.
This Davis Cup is his first since the one against the Czech Republic in 2015. His first match wasn't the best. And while Yuki really wasn't stretched against an opponent who had no real dominant shot to speak of, he will be glad he's got it out of the way. He certainly didn't seem like he was on full throttle. Rarely coming to the net he preferred hitting from the baseline. Tougher challenges will surely come ahead. Yuki must certainly hope he will hit his stride for them.