Tennis
India win Junior Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Final Qualifying 2022 event
It is the first time that India has won the Junior Davis Cup Qualifying event with Rushil Khosla, Debasis Sahoo and Bushan Haobam in the squad.
Indian junior davis cup players Rushil Khosla, Bushan Haobam and Debasis Sahoo with captain Sajid Lodi
The Indian tennis team made history by winning the Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying 2022 event in R.K Khanna Tennis Stadium, New Delhi on Saturday 16th April 2022. It is the first time that India has won this event.
The Indian team consists of the following –
The captain – Mr. Sajid Lodi
Players – Rushil Khosla, Debasis Sahoo, Bushan Haobam
Dr. Anil Jain, President of All India Tennis Association, and Mr. Anil Dhupar, Hon Secretary-General of AITA, congratulated the team India for putting up such a fabulous performance. The other two teams who qualified for the World Finals are Japan (No. 2) and Australia (No. 3).
Having the crowd was a surreal feeling: Rushil Khosla
Thrilled with the massive victory, The Bridge caught up with youngster Rushil Khosla who played a key role in getting India a win, alongside teammates Debasis Sahoo and Bushan Haobam.
"The atmosphere at the stadium today was electric! I could play there all day, the crowd cheered very loudly and it sometimes even over-pumped me," Khosla, ecstatic relayed to The Bridge.
"In fact, in my singles rubber today against Japan, I had no trouble breaking my opponent in the first set but in the second, the crowd was so charged up, I had to signal them to quieten down a little, it was so much energy that sometimes it can be a bit too much," Rushil says, with a laugh.
Transitioning from a European clay swing in March to hard courts in April, Khosla practised with his coach Aditya Sachdeva at Chandigarh before arriving at the RK Khanna Tennis Academy to train with the others before the event kicked off on 11th April, coincidentally his birthday as well.
"We started off against Pakistan and registered a strong 3-0 win. The Indonesian team gave us a walkover and we were up against Australia next in the group stage tie," he informs.
However, against the Aussies, the Indian team did not win but that's not something Rushil regrets.
"We are glad we lost against Australia. It was a bad day for us but it happened for a reason, we got a better draw because of the loss," Khosla chirped.
Following that, the Indian team took on Iran in the quarters, Kazakhstan in the semi-finals and finally, Japan in the final tie, before going on to win the Qualifying event for the first time, bagging gold and earning their place
"For now, I have to worry about my board exams, they start in 10 days," Rushil relayed with a nervous laugh, not as confident about the preparations for this as he is about his tennis preps, he admitted, before signing off.
