Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes and doubles partner Czech Radek Stepanek entered the US Open men's doubles pre-quarterfinals with a straight-set victory in the second round in New York.
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea began their campaign at the Wimbledon championships with a hard-fought win over over Tim Smyczek and Jiri Vesley in the men's doubles.
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.
Being the top seeds, the Indian Davis Cup team received a bye for the first round of the Asia/Oeceania Group I 2016 competition.
Playing alongside Australian partner Matthew Ebden, the eight-time doubles Grand Slam champion Leander Paes showed his class during a clinical victory over defending champion and second seed Sharan, who was playing alongside New Zealand's Artem Sitak.
India's non-playing captain Anand Amritraj said that the doubles team's "shock" defeat on day two resulted in the hosts ultimately losing the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against Czech Republic.
A profligate Yuki Bhambri missed chances galore in a tame defeat against world number 40 Jiri Vesley as India lost the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against top seeds Czech Republic 1-3.
Leander Paes, partnering Rohan Bopanna, suffered a rare doubles defeat in the Davis Cup as Radek Stepanek and Adam Pavlasek gave Czech Republic a 2-1 lead over India in the World Group play-off tie, in New Delhi, on Saturday.
India were handed a tough Davis Cup draw, being pitted against top seeds Czech Republic in the World Group Play-offs, to be held from September 18-20 either in New Delhi or Pune.
The 28-year-old Vesley said, "I just wanted to be myself and play my natural game. Although his confidence was high after the first set, I don't know what happened to him, his game just dropped."
Somdev Devverman kept India's hopes alive in the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie with a 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, in Delhi, on Friday.
Defending champion Rohan Bopanna went down fighting in the thrilling doubles opening round game at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra, in Pune, on Wednesday. Playing alongside local boy Arjun Kadhe, the ace Indian player Bopanna dominated the game initially. However, after winning the first set convincingly, the Indian duo couldn't manage to continue the momentum further in the games against French pair of Benoit Paire and Antoine Hoang as they lost the match 3-6, 7-5, 10-7.
Leander Paes was, on Saturday, gracious in defeat and conceded that Czech player Adam Pavlasek played "phenomenal" tennis in the Davis Cup doubles game in New Delhi.
Having fired 20 aces in his straight-set victory over the Czech Republic's number one, Jiri Vesley, in the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie in Delhi on Friday, Somdev Devvarman declared it was one of the best serving days of his career.
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