India to play Sweden in Davis Cup Group I tie

NEW DELHI: The International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Thursday that the Indian men's tennis team will lock horns with Sweden in Davis Cup's Group I tie later this year in September. This tie would be an away fixture for team India and the tentative dates are from September 13 to 14 or from September 14 to 15, as per Olympics.com.

India received promotion to the World Group I after demolishing arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 in the play-offs held in Islamabad earlier this month. Star India players Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal did not participate in these matches and in their absence Ramkumar Ramanathan guided the side to victory. Bopanna had said goodbye to Davis Cup last year while on the other hand, Nagal pulled out citing 'personal reasons'.

The Swedish team is coming to this fixture after losing to Brazil 1-3 in the qualifiers first round. The upcoming meeting against Sweden will not be an easy one for India as they have ended up on the losing side in the five times both the teams have faced each other in this competition.

Team India last played took on Sweden back in 2005 in New Delhi which they went on to lose by a score line of 1-3. That team included many big players such as Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj. It was a World Group play-off tie. For India, Sumit Nagal is the highest-ranked singles player who is currently World No. 121. On the other hand, for Sweden it's Elias Ymer whose rank is 160th in the world.