Croatia and Argentina reached the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, winning in doubles to take unassailable 3-0 leads over Chile and Netherlands respectively. Seven times champions Sweden took a 2-1 lead over Israel with doubles victory for Robert Lindstedt and Simon Aspelin over Andy Ram and Amir Hadad.
Mukund is now the second Indian player to pull out of the tie after Rohan Bopanna had withdrawn due to a shoulder injury.
The All India Tennis Association may be backing Leander Paes to the hilt in him making the squad for the Rio Olympics, but the veteran star will not be picked in the Davis Cup team despite showing late interest in competing in the Asia/Oceania Group I tie against Korea Republic next month.
Yuki Bhambri, the country's No 1 singles player, will open India's Davis Cup campaign when he takes on world No 85 Lukas Rosol in the first singles of the World Group play-off match against the Czech Republic, in Delhi, on Friday. The second singles will be played between Somdev Devvarman and Czech No 1 Jiri Vesley.
Uzbekistan suffered a blow with their top player Denis Istomin ruled out of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group 1 tie against India due to a foot injury, on Tuesday.
Five-times Davis Cup champions Spain will host Britain in the first round of the 2018 competition.
Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek put defending champions CzechRepublic into the Davis Cup final by beating Argentina's Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos in the doubles on Saturday.
In the absence of an injured Yuki, a lot would depend on how the left-handed Prajnesh, who won a singles bronze medal at the Asian Games, performs.
France won their 10th Davis Cup title when Lucas Pouille crushed Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 to give the hosts a 3-2 victory in the final against neighbours Belgium on Sunday.
Indian tennis faces a second major embarrassment in six months after negotiations between the association and disgruntled Davis Cup players failed ahead of their home tie against South Korea next month.
Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri posted straight-set wins in their respective reverse singles as India completed a 5-0 whitewash of Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup relegation play-off tie, in Bangalore on Sunday.
Outsiders Kazakhstan stayed alive in their Davis Cup quarter-final against holders CzechRepublic after winning the doubles rubber on Saturday.
India's No 2 tennis player Karan Rastogi wants to win back his place in Indian Davis Cup squad and improve on his ranking this year.
Ivo Karlovic and Marin Cilic won five-set marathons at home to put Croatia 2-0 ahead of 32-time champions United States, while Israel stunned favoured Russia to also lead 2-0 in the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Friday. Champions Spain were held to 1-1 by Germany in Marbella, and the Czech Republic and Argentina were tied after the opening two singles in their best of five tie.
Switzerland won home advantage in the first-round draw and are likely to opt for a fast court to counteract the claycourt supremacy of the Spanish.
Leander Paes aspires to win not only a second Olympics medal but also obliterate the Ramanathan Krishnan's Davis Cup record of most singles win for India.
Belgium's chances of claiming a maiden Davis Cup title against hosts France remained intact after Friday's opening singles, in which David Goffin made a huge impression, were tied 1-1.
Australia's John Blom is the neutral umpire and India's Punit Gupta the chair umpire for the April 7-9 Davis Cup zonal play-off encounter.
Rafael Nadal survived a spirited early attack from American Sam Querrey on Friday, before beating the Davis Cup debutant 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening semi-final rubber in Madrid.
The doubles specialist made the team at the expense of Prakash Amritraj, who was rendered ineligible after the new sports policy that bars foreign passport holders from representing the country. Amritraj holds a United States passport.
Davis Cup: Ramkumar to lead Indian challenge against Pakistan on grass courts
Veteran doubles specialist Mahesh Bhupathi made a comeback for national duty as a five-member Indian team for the Asia-Oceania Davis Cup tie against Uzbekistan was announced in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Team India lauds Yuki Bhambri, hero of match against New Zealand.
Spain's hopes of a hat-trick of Davis Cup triumphs ended when they fell 3-0 behind to France in Clermont-Ferrand after losing Saturday's doubles rubber.
Davis Cup holders Britain edged into a 2-1 lead in Serbia after Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot won Saturday's doubles.
Four members of the Davis Cup team have written to the AITA saying they will not play under captain Leander Paes.
World number four Andy Murray has withdrawn from Britain's Davis Cup tie against Lithuania in March and will in future discuss his participation with the Lawn Tennis Association before every match.
Argentina, the Czech Republic and Spain also booked their places in the last eight by opening up 3-0 leads.
The youngster faces Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, while Rohan Bopanna will play Farrukh Dustov in the Asia Oceania Zone Group I tie.
Ram Kumar Ramanathan will take on Seong-Chan Hong, ranked more than 200 places below him, in the first singles match of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania group-I tie between India and South Korea starting in Chandigarh on Friday.
The world number one confirmed he would play for Switzerland against Britain in the World Group play-off in September.
Rafael Nadal's decision to opt out of Spain's Davis Cup tie against Peru is understandable given the physical problems the world number two has experienced in recent seasons, captain Emilio Sanchez-Vicario said.
Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will make his Davis Cup debut for France in a first-round tie against Romania next month.
Russia have recalled Marat Safin for next month's Davis Cup first-round tie against Serbia.
Bopanna being the highest-ranked doubles player in the country is automatic choice for the doubles rubber.
Rohan Bopanna will pair with N Sriram Balaji in the men's doubles event at the Paris Olympics.
Rafael Nadal's decision to opt out of the Davis Cup World Group Play-off opening tie remained shrouded in mystery with Spain captain Conchita Martinez and player Feliciano Lopez coming up with two different versions.
India salvaged some pride by winning the two inconsequential reverse singles to reduce their margin of defeat against Uzbekistan to 2-3 in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I second round tie in Namangan (Uzbekistan) on Sunday.
John Fitzgerald has been reappointed non-playing captain of Australia's Davis Cup squad for 2008 despite failing to keep the 28-times champions in the World Group. Australia lost their place in the elite World Group for the first time since 1991 when they lost a relegation tie against Serbia in September.
Somdev Devvarman recorded his first Davis Cup win to keep India afloat in the second round tie against Chinese Taipei as both the teams were locked 1-1 on the opening day of the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I tie in Kaohsiung (Chinese Taipei) on Friday.
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