It was third week of July 1993, Naresh Kumar’s (non-playing captain) two horse India team comprising of young Leander Peas and veteran Ramesh Krishnan took star studded France comprising of Henri Leconte, Arnaud Boestsch and Rodolphe Gilbert at slow clay court at Frejus for Davis Cup Quarter Final. There was not much welcome to India at France and France was expected to have a cake walk against India due to following factors.
• Home advantage
• Slow clay court suits their needs
• Availability of their top star and 1988 French Open finalist Henri Leconte and Arnaud Boestsch who was ranked within 25 in ATP
• Full team for France where for India it was only Ramesh Krishnan and Leander Peas for both singles, doubles and reverse singles
• Young Leander Peas with less experience
• Old and ageing Ramesh Krishnan who was going to announce his retirement in near sometime
With all the above odds, Ramesh Krishnan lost the first match against Arnaud Boestsch in straight sets thereby host took 1-0 lead in the opening tie. It was expected that experienced Henri Leconte to win young Leander Peas, but it turned into a different game as Leander Peas started playing attacking tennis from the word go thereby, he pushed Henri Leconte to back foot completely and to the surprise he won the game and India leveled 1-1 on day one.
On second day during doubles, the host comprising of Henri Leconte and Arnaud Boestsch won comfortably against visitors Leander Peas and Ramesh Krishnan and took the lead to 2-1 over India. Unfortunately, during the match Henri Leconte got injured and he was doubtful for next day’s reverse singles, especially the final rubber.
India stared day three confidently (trailing 1-2) and Leander Peas won his reverse singles tie against Arnaud Boestsch and scores were levelled at 2-2 which gave India a chance on the final reverse single tie where Ramesh Krishnan faced Rodolphe Gilbert (replaced injured Henri Leconte). This turned out to be one of the exciting contests for India in Davis Cup history and it was a complete roller-coaster. Ramesh Krishnan lost the first set 2-6 and came back to win second set 6-4. He again lost third set 4-6 and in fourth set, he was trailing 2-5 games and Rudolph was serving game point, set point, match point and Davis Cup tie point. It was all thought that the match is going to be over in a few seconds and India is going to lose. From all the chips down, Ramesh Krishnan rose like a Phoenix went on to break Rudolphe serve and won the game and narrowed his opponent lead to 3-5. He further went on to win the next game and further narrowed opponent lead to 4-5. Still in the next game, Rudolphe Gilbert was serving for the match and Ramesh Krishnan again broke his serve and now games were levelled at 5-5 in the fourth set. Ramesh Krishnan went on to hold his serve in the next game and took the lead to 6-5 and again broke Rudolphe serve to win the fourth set at 7-5. It was an unbelievable come back with 2-5 down and went on to win the set by breaking opponent service thrice and now the scores were levelled at 2 sets each.
With the play entered into fifth set, Rudolphe Gilbert was leading 4-2 and again Ramesh Krishnan came back strongly and at 4-4, the match was stopped due to poor light and it was announced that it will continue on next day. When the play resumed next day, Ramesh Krishnan came back strongly and won the fifth set 6-4 thereby, India took the lead to 3-2 and won the Quarter Final event against France at their home, on their favorite clay court and stormed into semi-finals. It was one of the remarkable come back by an Indian tennis star from the verge of defeat and finally scores read as 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 and 6-4.
Good Article . Very interesting