India had a poor start to their Davis Cup World Group 1 tie against Sweden as both Ramkumar Ramanathan and Sriram Balaji lost their respective singles matches on the first day in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday.
India is now trailing 0-2 in the tie and needs to win all three matches on the second day to progress to the next round. There is one men’s doubles match, and then the two reverse singles matches are left in the tie.
The day started with the first singles match where the doubles specialist and Olympian Sriram Balaji, trying his hands in singles, had a horrific outing and lost to the higher-ranked opponent in straight sets.
He conceded an easy (4-6, 2-6) defeat to Elias Ymer in the opening match of the tie, where he couldn’t manage to win any breaks throughout the game.
India trail 0-2 to Sweden in Davis Cup 🇮🇳🎾
Both N Sriram Balaji & Ramkumar Ramanathan lose their respective singles games to Elias Ymer & Leo Berg 😢
Balaji loses 4-6, 2-6 while Ramanathan loses 3-6, 4-6#Tennis #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/X7qOWfRqvR
— The Bridge (@the_bridge_in) September 14, 2024
Ramanathan lost to lower-ranked Leo.
In the second match of the day, the experienced Indian singles player, Ramkumar Ramanathan also suffered a straight-set (3-6, 4-6) defeat to lower-ranked Leo Borg of Sweden.
Ramanathan had a solid start to the match, winning a break in the first game of the match but later he made many unforced errors and lost the first set, conceding two consecutive beaks.
In the second set, the 21-year-old Swedish didn’t give any chance to the Indian to push the match into a decider and won the set comfortably without losing any break, 6-4.
However, both Ramanathan and Balaji will combine for the doubles match tomorrow, sighting a comeback in the tie.