With India's recent Davis Cup triumph against Chinese Taipei coming without the experience of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, the country's numero uno singles player Somdev Devvarman feels it is time that the focus shifts from the veteran duo to the youngsters.
India thrashed Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the Asia/Oceania Group I tie here and Somdev said although the team will forever remain grateful the contribution that Paes and Bhupathi made, the time has come to look ahead.
The 28-year-old, who is currently ranked 103rd in the ATP list, also spoke about his role in the players' revolt against the national federation and eventually founding of Indian Tennis Players' Association (ITPA) last year.
In a free-wheeling chat with PTI, Somdev also said he would remain stubborn about his game not change anything about it.
Excerpts from an interview.
Q: The best thing in this tie was team camaraderie. Isn't it good to not have groups in the Indian Davis Cup team. Leander or Mahesh not being there?
Ans: Let's not focus on Leander and Mahesh. Let's focus on the youngsters. Jeevan asked 15 times during and before and after my match what I need. And he knows I will do the same when he will play. So we are all here helping out each other. I think the focus should not be there on Leander or Mahesh. The focus should be on the group of guys who are here. The focus should be on the new captain. Because this is the future.
We appreciate everything they have given us but now we need to move on. Mahesh has said he is done this year. Leander is a fantastic player, unfortunately he is not available for national duty this year but we will just go ahead. No matter, who is there or not there. We will try to make the best of whatever we have.
