Shokeen, Rastogi suffer loss, all eyes on Paes in doubles

Namangam, Feb 9 (UNI) India made a disastrous start to their Davis Cup campaign with uncapped Vivek Shokeen and Karan Rastogi losing their singles ties in straight sets against higher ranked Uzbek rivals in the first round of the Asia-Oceania Group 1 matches here today.

While Shokeen went down 1-6, 3-6, 3-6 to world number 208 Denis Istomin, Rastogi crashed to a 3-6, 3-6, 4-6 defeat against Farrukh Dustov to leave India trailing 0-2 in the tournament.

The Indian team, missing the services of the more experienced Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna, would now be pinning its hopes on tomorrow's do-or-die doubles tie in which captain Leander Paes will team up with Sunil Kumar Sipaeya to take on Murad Inoyatov and Denis Istomin.

Shokeen and Rastogi could never match up to the Uzbeks, who have now put their team in a winning position, and were outplayed as they struggled to find their feet against the favourites.

If Paes and Sipaeya manage to make it 1-2, than Shokeen and Rastogi will have to come up with a vastly improved display in the reverse singles on Sunday to for India to the next level.

UNI