India were on Thursday drawn to meet Sweden in an away Davis Cup World Group I tie in September.
Following his title win at the Traralgon Challenger event, Indian tennis player Yuki Bhambri leapfrogged 73 places to 204 in the singles rankings on Monday even as Rohan Bopanna dropped out of the top-10 in the doubles chart.
Another Indian pair of N Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan will also be seen in the semi-finals after their opponents, Gianluca Mager and Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew from the last-eight match due to an injury to the former.
Surprisingly, Yuki Bhambri has preferred a smaller $50,000 Challenger tournament in Kobe, Japan, while Ramkumar Ramanathan has to attend a mandatory ATP educative programme in London.
The top Indian singles player, ranked 95, struggled to match the power and range of his fancied rival
India's best player Yuki Bhambri is back in the squad and that changes the dynamics for the three-day rubber.
Indian Davis Cup team capped its historic visit to Pakistan after 60 years by sealing its place in World Group I as it blanked Pakistan 4-0 with Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni recording a comfortable victory and Niki Poonacha making a winning debut, in Islamabad on Sunday.
India's top singles player Somdev Devvarman was on Saturday drawn to a play a qualifier while wild cards Yuki Bhambri and Jeeven Nedunchehziyan will have to fight it out with top-100 players in their first rounds at the Aircel Chennai Open.
Ramkumar Ramanathan enhanced his reputation of being a passionate fighter even in defeat against a much superior Marin Cilic while Yuki Bhambri squandered six break chances to crash out of the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune on Wednesday.
The 43-year-old Bopanna and 35-year-old Ebden, who claimed two doubles titles on the ATP Tour earlier this year, will next face the unseeded British pair of Jacob Fearnley and Johannus Monday on Sunday.
Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Martina Hingis were ousted from the Rogers Cup after the top seeds suffered a straight sets loss to Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik in Toronto on Saturday.
India's top singles players, led by Somdev Devvarman, easily advanced to the second round of ATP Pune Challenger on Tuesday, but rising star Ramkumar Ramanathan made a shock first-round exit. Third seed Somdev proved too good for local wild card Arjun Kadhe, scoring a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 60 minutes. Seventh seed Yuki Bhambri disposed of the challenge of Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang 6-3, 6-0.
The sixth seeds needed a little over an hour to overcome the unseeded pairing of Roman Safiullin of Russia and Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-3 in a second round match.
Sasikumar Mukund, who was banned by AITA on disciplinary grounds, is back as India's best-ranked player for the World Group I Play-off tie against Togo, starting on Saturday.
The 534th ranked Yuki, who missed out on half the season in 2016 due to a tennis elbow injury, conjured up a 6-1, 6-4 win against his 116th-ranked American opponent.
Cilic's booming serve lacked its usual accuracy and Germany's Kohlschreiber was able to control long rallies, pushing the towering Croatian around the court with pinpoint groundstrokes en route to a quick victory.
Yuki Bhambri asserted his class over a promising Arjun Kadhe even as young Sumit Nagal's ATP World Tour debut ended in a tame defeat at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune on Tuesday.
Wrapping up the first set in less than 25 minutes, the pair led 4-1 in the second when they were made to work a bit as Galfi and Pera won four games on the trot to make it five-all.
Fresh from winning the Chennai leg, Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round, even as the other two Indians Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan made quiet exits in the $50,000 ATP Challenger at BTA Courts in Kolkata.
Bhambri, ranked 200th, recovered from a set down and registered what turned to be an emphatic 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Pella in a match that lasted for two hours and 10 minutes.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday.
India has never beaten Sweden in five attempts in the Davis Cup.
Sumit Nagal fought fire with fire to bring India back in the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie against Denmark, winning the second singles.
Yuki, ranked 93, has told AITA that if he gets direct entry into the last Grand Slam of the season, he won't be available.
A fired up Yuki Bhambri recorded his first ever victory in a live fifth rubber after Somdev Devvarman levelled the scores as India advanced to World Group Play-offs.
When contacted, AITA Secretary General Anil Dhupar said he does not have any objection to Bopanna playing with Balaji, ranked 84, at the Paris Olympics.
The Indian qualifier, who savoured his best ever performance on the ATP World Tour, went down fighting 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 against the world number 45 from South Africa in the quarter-finals played on Friday.
Vishnu Vardhan joined the Indian Davis Cup team in Chandigarh on Sunday and said the hosts are familiar with the playing style of the New Zealand squad that touched down for the Asia-Oceania tie starting September 14.
Outgoing Davis Cup captain S P Misra has said with quality players such as Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri in the team, India have a good chance to qualify for the World Group next year.
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.
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.
India's campaign ended at the $125000 Tashkent ATP Challenger after Davis Cuppers, Yuki Bhambri, Vishnu Vardhan and Sanam Singh got beaten in their respective first round matches.
India's Davis Cup Captain Mahesh Bhupathi picked Rohan Bopanna for the Davis Cup match against Uzbekistan in Bengaluru.
Balaji also showed that he can quickly adapt to conditions when he was asked to do the singles duty during the Davis Cup tie against Pakistan on grass. The rival was not of the highest quality but Balaji showed that he was willing to come out of his comfort zone if the team demands.
Davis Cup: Ramkumar to lead Indian challenge against Pakistan on grass courts
Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni were done in by some 'flawless' tennis played by the Kiwi players according to India coach Zeeshan Ali.
Ramkumar Ramanthan scored a fluent win after Yuki Bhambri eked out a straight set victory to hand India a commanding 2-0 lead against New Zealand on the opening day of the Asia/Oceania Group I Davis Cup tie, in Pune, on Friday.
The Indian challenge in the men's singles at the Chennai Open came to an end on Tuesday when home favourite Somdev Devvarman was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Belgian qualifier David Goffin. Earlier in the day, India's two other entries in the singles -- Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri (both wild cards) suffered similar fate.
The left-handed Prajnesh, ranked 183, lost 3-6, 4-6 in the third and final round against the Swede, ranked 122 in the world.
India's singles challenge came to a tame end after Yuki Bhambri lost 3-6, 3-6 to fifth seeded Canadian Vasek Pospisil, in the quarter-final of the ATP Chennai Open on Friday.
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