Pune: Dhakshineswar Suresh, drafted as a reserve in the Indian Davis Cup squad for the World Group I tie against Switzerland in Biel this weekend, has impressed the team management with “how he is shaping up”, captain Rohit Rajpal said on Wednesday.“We worked hard to get Suresh here. We spoke to his college coach (of the Wake Forest University in the US). He is 6′ 5″ and we are really happy with the way he is shaping up,” Rajpal told The Times of India from Biel.The 25-year-old Suresh, a native of temple town of Madurai in Tamil Nadu, played a key role in Wake Forest becoming the NCAA champions in men’s tennis this year. He combined with Holden Koons to reach a season-high No. 1 as a team in ITA rankings and the two were named All-Americans in doubles.Suresh also reached the quarterfinals in singles, having entered as a qualifying wildcard, in the ATP Tour 250 Series event in Winston-Salem last month.The Indian team has been boosted by the return of Sumit Nagal and Yuki Bhambri, who had both skipped the previous two ties against Sweden (at the same stage last year in Stockholm) and Togo (in the playoff earlier this year in Delhi).Bhambri is fresh from a splendid run to the semifinals in doubles at the US Open.Aryan Shah, Karan Singh and Sriram Balaji are the other members of the team.The Indians, who assembled in Biel on Sunday, had to deal with a minor issue of having to travel nearly 50 kilometres for their practice over the first two days before they could access the match venue, the Swiss Tennis Arena.“The main venue was not ready, so we had to practice at a venue 40-50 kilometres away,” Rajpal said.“Usually they (the host nation) give us the main venue from Monday,” he added.The day temperature has been hovering around 15 degrees Celsius but the tie would be played indoors.“The good thing is we have a larger squad this time. The idea is to make the Next Gen players get used to travelling with the Davis Cup team and the team atmosphere,” Rajpal said.
