Sumit Nagal withdraws himself from the Davis Cup with Saketh Myneni being named as his replacement

Sumit Nagal withdrew himself from India’s away game against Finland in the Davis Cup due to a hip injury. Saketh Myneni has been named as his replacement for the five-man squad for the indoor match on September 18-19.

Sumit Nagal withdrew himself from India’s away game against Finland in the Davis Cup due to a hip injury. Saketh Myneni has been named as his replacement for the five-man squad for the indoor match on September 18-19.Nagal told the national tennis federation All India Tennis Association (AITA) that his doctors have advised him not to play on the hard courts.

Non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal and Nandan Bal, chairman of the selection committee have agreed to name Myneni as a replacement. His last match for India was the World Group Play-off tie against Serbia.

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AITA Secretary-General Anil Dhupar said that Nagal had written to them that he can’t play this Davis Cup match due to a hip injury he suffered after the US Open qualifiers. He continued by saying that Myneni can play both singles and doubles and hence, has been added to the squad.

Myneni had played six Davis Cup ties for his country out of the eight times he has been named. He was part of the squad that beat Pakistan in 2019 but did not play a single match when it was held in Kazakhstan.

Myneni is very confident about his ability to help the team and it was just about waiting for his chance. He couldn’t play a single tournament since April and wasn’t able to procure a visa for the United States. He feels good about his game but said he is not too sure about his match sharpness.

Nandan Bal said that Myneni was the unanimous choice as he has experience in these tournaments and knows what it takes to perform.
He is now ranked at 577 and there were two Indians ranked higher than him: Sasikumar Mukund (321) and Siddarth Rawat (555). Mukund did not make himself available as he is committed to the European Circuit, while Rawat was not selected because he didn’t have a Schengen Visa and Myneni played both formats well.

The player joins the team of Prajnesh Gunneswaran (156), Ramkumar Ramanathan (204), Rohan Bopanna (46 in doubles) and Divij Sharan (83 in doubles). They will leave for Finland on the 8th of September. The winner of this tie will be in the Qualifiers while the loser will play in the World Group I Play-offs in the 2022 season.