Top dog Nagal missing amid 'tougher' Davis Cup format, but Rohit Rajpal sure of confident display against Togo

India are all set to take on Togo in the Davis Cup 2025 World Group I play-off tie in New Delhi on February 1-2. The team will be without Sumit Nagal, their best-ranked singles tennis player, for the third straight time, while Yuki Bhambri, India’s top-rated doubles player, also made himself unavailable for the contest. But Mukund Sasikumar is all set to make a comeback after the All India Tennis Association (AITA) cancelled his suspension, which saw him miss the Sweden tie last year.

Despite the absence of two of their top players, with Mukund, India's best-ranked singles player at world no. 368, back, Rohit Rajpal, who will continue to captain the Indian Davis Cup team, is optimistic of the team's chances against unheralded Togo.

Speaking to Hindustan Times Digital, Rajpal talked about the impending tie against Togo, the conversation he had with Mukund on his return, the absence of Nagal and Yuki, and the importance of getting a young crop of players ready to take over the mantle in Davis Cup. Here are excerpts...

Q) How have India's preparations been so far?

So far, so good. We've gotten in early, and the boys are also here. The whole team is completed coming here, and things are going well. We're getting to get the boys to do a lot of drills and sets so that they get matched up.

Q) How much information do you or the team have about Togo?

Unfortunately, this is the first time that we're not getting much information online and otherwise. We have an analysis team that analyses all players and their future, you know, and their past matches and gives us data as to where and, you know, under pressure and where the favourite spots are. But we can't get that here, so we'll have to do it physically. So we're waiting. When the Togo team comes in, we'll have a couple of people looking at them and watching.

Q) Mukund Sasikumar is all set to make a return after facing suspension last year. How did you break the ice on his selection? Was it a difficult conversation?

Yes, it was because these boys are young and sensitive. And tennis is a brutal game. It's a lot of struggle on the tour. So, we need to make sure that the sensitivities are taken care of. Sometimes, they get upset over little things. But here, in Sasikumar's case, it was a matter that needed to be sorted out personally rather than trying to do it over emails. But these are good kids. They're sometimes misguided; sometimes they carry wrong impressions. So, the important thing is that the values of the team must continue from my time - my first captain, Vijay Amritraj and so on and so forth, Ramesh and everybody else. And for us, the priority has always been playing for the nation first. It takes priority over everything else and, and it's My job now as, as captain to make sure that my team carries the same values forward. And this is the kind of conversation we've had. When you, when you're especially number one or number two in the country, then, then a lot of juniors are looking up to you, the country is looking up to you, your fans are looking up to you. So it's important that you do the right things, you know, and there's no bigger honour, as far as I'm concerned, than to play for your own country.

Q) There is no Sumit Nagal or Yuki Bhambri, but with Sasikumar back, are you positive about India's chances?

Yes, I'm positive. I think some people do not understand that the new format now, after 2019, is very tough because you have World Group, World Group I, and World Group II. In the past, what used to happen was that if we lost in the World Group anywhere, then we would come back to Asia Oceania, and we would be seeded, and then we would get an easy country, and we would play and usually win and come back in. But now it's different. Now you have World Group I, World Group II, World Group. So sometimes you find a team like Greece or Denmark, they have one bad week, one bad match, and they're hanging around in these kinds of groups. And for Togo players, whatever I researched so far is that they're playing mainly in France and USA. So, we're expecting a match. We won't take anybody lightly because they've beaten Indonesia and Latvia, which are decent teams. We're really practising hard to make sure we're not letting up.

Q) Talking about Nagal. There was some back and forth between him and AITA last year amid that Sweden clash. Do such things affect the Indian camp? And if it does, how do you address it?

It does affect. We were a little disappointed that while the team was in Sweden, your number one member was not there. Maybe he was a little negative over something or a couple of guys in AITA. So, it does affect. But at the same time, you know, we speak to them, and we try to sort out whatever differences there are. The idea is that the right attitude and, like I said, the right values are carried forward.

Unfortunately, Sumit was unavailable this time, but we're hoping to have him back going forward, and similarly with Yuki.

Q) Did you try to reach out to them after they decided to pull out?

Yes, I chatted with them, and I'm hopeful they'll be back. They're both good boys. We will sort out any issues that they have.

Q) You discussed the importance of having the top players for a Davis Cup tie. Is there a way AITA can incentivise participation in the Davis Cup?

We already do that. We support the players with wildcards and in every way that we can. Sometimes, you know, actions need to be taken from AITA, which are also necessary.

For example, Yuki was a little upset over the Olympics, where he didn't get a chance to participate. But AITA was in a difficult situation because normally Rohan Bopanna, who was the number one player, gets to choose his partner. Yuki felt that AITA should have interfered and ensured that he played. But it was difficult to do that because you can't force Rohan to play with somebody he doesn't want to, or he may prefer to play with somebody else for that tournament. So, these are difficult situations for AITA to handle and players need to understand that and respect that sometimes. Issues like these arise in businesses, life, and everywhere else. And over a period of time, one can sort it out.

Q) Last time, you had Manas Dhamne; this time, you have Aryan Shah, Chirag Duhan and Yuvan Nandal. How significant has the addition of this young crop of players been?

It's extremely significant because most of our players are all above 25 and getting on with age. So we need to have the next ring ready. Even Manas was supposed to come, but it's a long way off, and he's not playing. But he'll be here for the Delhi Open. But these young boys, we want to make sure that they're getting ready as well to take the mantle.

Every player is not a good Davis Cup player. Davis Cup pressures are very different. So the whole idea, the purpose of getting all these kids here at the moment, is to firstly play with the, with the playing members who are experienced and also be on the bench and feel the pressure and know what it is like, so that, when they play, they understand things, and can handle the pressure well.

Q) In your presser after the Sweden tie, you spoke about the importance of the National Tennis Centre (NTC). But it unfortunately shut down. How big an impact is it on Indian tennis's future?

It is shut down at the moment, but I do believe that we are going back to the drawing board, and we will, at some point, start a program, a national program, a player development program.

There are already discussions within AITA, so we are going back to the drawing board and trying to learn from our past experience because we need to start doing this very quickly on the player development side. We need to support some of our players internally. Tennis has been a consistent medal giver in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

Even in the Olympics, Leander Paes brought India a medal. So we want to ensure that tennis remains among the top sports in India. For that, a player development program is necessary. I've been saying this for the last 10 years, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to start it again with a better structure for the players.