India lose to Romania in Davis Cup
22nd September 2008
Romania retained their place in the Davis Cup World Group after forging to an unassailable 3-1 lead in the play-off with Inida here on Sunday.
With a 2-1 overnight advantage victory was assured when Romania's Victor Hanescu defeated Prakash Amritraj, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
"Disappointed? Yes but we'll try again next year," said Amritraj, a loser on Friday against Victor Crivoi who comes up against Somdev Devvarman in the remaining dead singles rubber.
Hanescu dominated the match throughout on the clay in Bucharest, his home city.
The Romanian was never properly threatened, he only had three break points against him, converting six of his 14 break opporutnities to seal the tie in one hour 40 minutes.
Armitraj, who committed 43 errors, reflected: "The plan was to attack and be more consistent than Friday. But when he got up, especially at home, he played a lot better.
"And on my break points, I wasn't able to put pressure on him and played too much defensive...I realized I have a lot of things to work on clay. I'm gonna take time and probably prepare for the French Open next year."
India were bidding for a place in the World Group for the first time since 1998 and had given themselves a lifeline, after going 2-0 down on Friday, when Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes saw off Horia Tecau and Adrian Cruciat 6-4 7-6 (7/0) 6-4 in Saturday's doubles.
Three-times finalists Romania and India have met three times in the Davis Cup.
India managed a 5-0 whitewash in 1922, but the Romanians then had the upper hand with a 4-0 win in 1969 on Romanian clay and then scored a 4-1 success in 1971 in New Delhi with Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac proving too strong for their rivals.
Source: Times of India