There was no urgency in his stroll to the baseline. No signal of fear both when he was dealing with a set level – as a substitute there was a wry smile on Otto Virtanen’s face. His motion, even throughout lengthy rallies, was languid. He wore a baseball cap backwards so as to add to the nonchalant manner. He was the underdog, with nothing to lose.
Ranked 419 on the planet, up towards World No 165 Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Virtanen was enjoying the opening match for Finland within the World Group 1 Davis Cup tie towards the Indians. Serving at 5-6, 30-40 – set level for Prajnesh – within the second set, Virtanen, with the identical air of nonchalance, walked to the baseline and hammered down his ninth ace of the match. A couple of minutes later, he closed out the match for a shock 6-3, 7-6(1) win.
A few hours later, Emil Ruusuvuori made it 2-0 for the hosts with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Ramkumar Ramanathan.
????2???0??????@EmilRuusuvuori closes out Ramanathan 6-4 7-5 to make it two-for-two for the hosts towards India!#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/DjRbRAiJ2d
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 17, 2021
In their first-ever tie towards the Finland within the Davis Cup, India was handed a troublesome problem on the Espoo Metro Areena, round 30 km from Helsinki. The hosts have World No. 74 Ruusuvuori, the highest-ranked singles participant within the tie. So, the guests have been concentrating on 20-year-old Virtanen, enjoying in solely his second Davis Cup tie, for 2 out of the three factors they should advance.
It additionally helped the Indian trigger that their No. 1 would play Virtanen first within the hope {that a} win may put scoreboard stress on 22-year-old Ruusuvuori within the second match.
But the aggressive teen, the son of former Finnish Davis Cup participant Pasi Virtanen, got here up with an early shock. He broke Prajnesh’s serve within the sixth recreation of the match and by no means let go of the lead thereon. It was the one break of the match, however Virtanen did have one other seven alternatives to interrupt serve once more. Five of these have been saved when Prajnesh was serving at 4-4 within the second set.
Rising to the event
On his personal serve, Virtanen confronted simply two break factors –saving each, together with the large flat ace large when dealing with set level.
“It was a combination of him coming up with the goods in the big moments, and me not doing enough,” says Prajnesh after the match.
“It was a pretty good match from Otto. He served pretty well today, didn’t give away any free points. Played pretty well when he had the lead.”
India did have a slight benefit from the draw with Prajnesh enjoying first. But they have been all the time operating the chance of the left-hander not being at his greatest. The 31-year-old from Chennai has struggled with wrist accidents all through this season, and it has affected his type as effectively.
“I’m not playing my sharpest, considering the fact that I’ve had injuries and not played too much. But every player goes through that at some point. That’s not an excuse for not being able to find a way today,” he says.
Photos from the observe session right now morning that includes Ramkumar Ramanathan and Saketh Myneni
Photos courtesy @siyer30 sir / @TennisFi pic.twitter.com/SAZWb4kNC8
— Indian Tennis Daily (@IndTennisDaily) September 17, 2021
“I didn’t do what I needed to today. Few loose games here and there. I feel like I didn’t convert on some of the close situations.”
Virtanen although, held his personal moderately effectively. He had a 73 p.c first serve share (55/75) – together with 10 aces – in comparison with Prajnesh’s 58 p.c (40/69). His service remained unbroken all through the match, together with the tie-breaker he went on to win 7-1 – the place Prajnesh dedicated 4 unforced errors.
In solely his third Davis Cup match, the teen from Hyvinkaa has picked up the most important win in his profession over a participant as soon as ranked as excessive as 75 on the planet.
Ruusuvuori makes it 2-0
Ruusuvuori in the meantime held off Ramkumar within the first set that noticed each gamers wrestle to search out their vary. They traded breaks early, earlier than Ruusuvuori managed to get the decisive break within the tenth recreation of the set to go 6-4.
They began to carry their serves higher within the second set, however Ramkumar, serving second, was once more damaged on the most important stage within the match. Ruusuvuori dispatched a backhand-down-the-line return winner to earn the one break within the second set to assert it 7-5 and provides Finland a 2-0 lead.
On Saturday, the veteran duo of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will begin proceedings in the one doubles match of the tie towards Henri Kontinen and Harri Heliovaara.