‘All the hard work paid off’: Rohit Rajpal as India blanks Togo 4-0 in Davis Cup clash

NEW DELHI: Indian Davis Cup captain Rohit Rajpal expressed his feelings as his team registered a clean sweep over Togo in the ongoing Davis Cup 2025 clash at the Davis Cup 2025 World Group I Playoffs at the DLTA Complex on Sunday.

Hosts India, backed by a passionate home crowd and a superior lineup, cruised past Togo 4-0 to secure a place in the Davis Cup 2025 World Group I Playoff. With the tie already decided in India’s favour, the fifth and final match was not played, a press release by DLTA Davis Cup stated.

“I am extremely grateful to everyone and all set of players, sports staff and everybody. They worked really hard in the last 10 days. Some of them were here for 10 days and we had practices starting from morning to night and all the hard work paid off. We came together as a team. They played their best tennis and the results are there to speak”, Rohit Rajpal said.

Having taken a commanding 2-0 lead on the opening day, thanks to emphatic victories by Mukund Sasikumar and Ramkumar Ramanathan in the singles rubbers, India needed just one more win on Sunday to seal their spot in World Group I, set to take place in September 2025.

N Sriram Balaji and Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli delivered that decisive win with clinical precision, defeating Hod’abalo Isak Padio and M’lapa Tingou Akomlo 6-2, 6-1 in the doubles rubber, ensuring India’s triumph.

With an electrifying atmosphere at the DLTA Complex, Balaji and Rithvik fed off the energy of the home crowd. They seized the initiative early, breaking their opponent’s serve in the fourth game of the first set before closing it out with another break in the eighth.

The second set was even more one-sided, as the Togolese pair struggled to hold serve, conceding breaks in the fourth and sixth games to hand India a dominant victory. Following the win, both players N Sriram Balaji and Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli opened up on what was going through in their minds during the clash.

“Ram and Mukund gave us a 2-0 lead so there was confidence and also playing with Rithvik by my side, we had a good rapo on the court. The main goal was to not try anything fancy, just stay on the basics and then get us the win and that helped us”, N Sriram Balaji said.

“Every match is important and feel like just to be ale to get my win on the first match that I played. It’s a good feeling for me. I thought we played solid and we didn’t try to do anything extra. We just tried to be solid and took over the chances that we got”, Rithvik Bollipalli said.

With the tie already secured, India fielded Karan Singh for the first reverse singles match against Padio. The 21-year-old started strong, breaking his opponent’s serve in the second game before comfortably closing out the first set. Karan looked set for a routine victory as he raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set with a double break. However, he momentarily lost momentum, dropping a service game, before regaining control to wrap up the match 6-2, 6-3.

After registering the win in the last match, Karan Singh said that he did not think that it was a dead rubber and he played the game as any other game of the tournament. “I was not thinking that it was a dead rubber match. It is a pleasure playing for the country and I was taking this like every other normal match. I didn’t let any nerve hit me. I was really confident about myself and my game and I think I did a good job today”, Karan Singh said. (ANI)