A wry smile would have escaped Leander Paes as he sits these days thinking about India’s 1-4 Davis Cup loss to Uzbekistan. The conditions, rankings and the Namangan red clay suited the Uzbeks much better than the kindergarten kids Paes took on study tour there. Fourteen years ago Paes too was in a similar Davis Cup study story, with similar odds stacked against him the only difference, the red clay was in Frejus.

But Ramesh Krishnan’s 20-year-old understudy Paes taught the French masters Arnaud Boetsch and Henri Leconte a lesson as India won 3-2. Paes, against Uzbekistan, didn’t have the pleasure that mentor Ramesh would have experienced in Frejus, but still India’s Mr Davis Cup saw some positives in the way 19-year-old Vivek Shokeen and 20-year-old Karan Rastogi played against the much higher ranked Uzbeks.

These new kids on the Davis Cup block need to be groomed. Paes plans to have a team of eight youngsters for future India games and that would mean a gradual shift towards the 20-somethings and slow phasing out of those nearing the 30s. With Paes at the centre, Indian tennis plans a revival to bring the game back on track.

Despite the one-sided contest, those at Namangan talk about the new bonding in the team that certainly seemed missing during the confusion surrounding Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi at the Asian Games in Doha. Post the Games, there was another tricky problem that Indian tennis faced. With second-string star Rohan Bopanna opting to concentrate on the pro circuit, that old debate started: Do the present day players fancy playing on the Tour more than turning out for the country?

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