The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has replaced the country’s No. 1 player Sumit Nagal with the 16-year-old Manas Dhamne for the Davis Cup World Group tie to be staged on indoor hardcourt in Stockholm on September 14 and 15.
The 27-year-old Nagal, who has played all the four Grand Slams this year, and reached a career-best rank of 73, had reported that he was compelled to withdraw from the tie owing to a back strain. The injury had also forced him to pull out of the doubles event in the ongoing US Open in New York.
“The decision to replace Sumit Nagal with Manas Dhamne was taken after a thorough assessment of performances by the chairman of selection committee, Nandan Bal, along with captain Rohit Rajpal and coach Ashutosh Singh,” stated Anil Dhupar, AITA secretary-general.
Dhamne, who trains at the Piatti Centre in Italy, had reached a career-best junior ranking of 43 last year. He has been competing in the men’’ circuit regularly for the past many months.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Niki Poonacha, Sidharth Vishwakarma and Sriram Balaji are the other members of the Indian team. The young Aryan Shah was announced as a reserve.
