Spain’s Rafael Nadal has been ruled out of opening singles rubber against India in their Davis Cup World Group play-off in New Delhi on Friday.

Feliciano Lopez will replace the World No 5 for the first singles to be played against India's Ramkumar Ramanathan.

The match is scheduled for a 5pm start at the RK Khanna Tennis Complex in New Delhi.

The pulling out of the 14-time Grand Slam champ, is a huge dampener for the tennis fans who turned up in huge numbers in the Capital to watch the Spaniard in action.

Nadal is hoping to feature in Sunday's reverse singles against Saketh Myneni at New Delhi's RK Khanna stadium.

India had beaten Korea 4-1 in their Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie while Spain defeated Romania with the same margin in their Europe/Africa zonal tie.

India and Spain have locked horns thrice in Davis Cup with the latter leading the head-to-head record 2-1.

The last time India played Spain was way back in 1965 when they lost the away tie 2-3.

Image: Spain's Rafael Nadal at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday

Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI