Bopanna back with a bang

Rohan Bopanna marked his return to the Davis Cup arena with an emphatic win as India tied Kazakhstan 1-1 at the end of first day's play in the zonal relegation play-off in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Friday.

Bopanna, who skipped the Asia-Oceania Group 1 first round tie in controversial circumstances, defeated Dmitry Makeyev 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 in the opening singles at the Baganashil Sports Complex.

"I did not give him (Makeyev) any chance to get into the match and stayed on top throughout," the 26-year-old Bangalorean said after the match.

Kazakhstan's number one player Alexey Kedriouk then pulled one back for the hosts with a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2) win over Karan Rastogi.

"It was a very intense match and I didn't play that well in the first two sets," Rastogi gave an honest assessment.

The Mumbaikar stayed close to Kedriouk, 292 in ATP Tour rankings, and picked up my game in the third and fourth sets but a couple of loose points in the tiebreaker brought his downfall.

Captain Leander Paes said that serving was the difference between Bopanna and Rastogi today.

"Rohan served well and his opponent was a bit inexperienced. Karan's serving let him down a bit on big points while his opponent served big," he said.

Bopanna was to pair up with Paes in the doubles against Kedriouk and Makeyev in the doubles tomorrow.

The reverse singles is scheduled for Sunday.

India, who lost 4-1 to Uzbekistan in the first round tie in February, need to win the tie to stay in the group for next season. Defeat would push them to final round of relegation play-offs.

Bopanna was erratic at the start as he went down 15-40 at 2-2 but his big serves bailed him out.

The Coorgi lad then went up 4-2 only to face with a triple-breakpoint situation in the very next game. Again, his booming serves rescued him.

The serves, however, kept getting better and better as the match progressed.

"I didn't lose serve the whole match," Bopanna said with pride.

Rastogi's game picked up in the third set.

He broke Kedriouk, to whom he had lost in three sets in an ITF tournament late last year, in the eighth game to go 5-3 up and served out the set.

The 20-year-old, who made his debut against Uzbekistan, sustained the challenge in the fourth set until the tie-breaker where Kedriouk's superior serving sealed the issue.