Lucknow: The devastation back home, caused by a deadly earthquake that killed close to 3,000 people, has jolted the Moroccan players ahead of their Davis Cup tie against India. However, Morocco skipper Mehdi Tahiri said his team are determined to do well against a strong home side.
The 6.8 magnitude earthquake Friday in the High Atlas Mountains left 2901 people dead and more than 5000 injured apart from causing massive destruction in Morocco. The same day the Morocco Davis Cup team were on their way to India for the World Group II tie.
With moist eyes and a soft voice, skipper Mehdi Tahiri expressed helplessness when he addressed the media on the eve of the draw. “Our hearts and souls are with the people back home. It’s very difficult for us to be away in this tough situation. A lot of people have lost their families. We wanted to help people, but unfortunately, we are here,” said Tahiri. “But we have to take it in our stride. We are away, we can’t do much. Our prayers are with the people of Morocco,” Tahiri added.
Morocco will be the underdogs in this tie with India possessing better singles players in their line-up. However, Tahiri said they do not feel threatened by the home team.
Sumit Nagal, at No. 156, will be the highest ranked singles player in the two-day tie. Morocco have their best player Elliot Benchetirt, ranked No. 465 in the world. Benchetri, though, has the exposure of playing at the highest level, having played in three Grand Slam events in his career.
Their next best is Yassine Dlimi, placed as low as No. 557. Adam Moundir is further behind at No. 779 and the remaining two players – Walid Ahouda and Younes Lalami Laaroussi – do not figure even in top-1000.
“Davis Cup is not played on rankings,” countered Tahiri. “We have come all the way here to compete. We may be the underdogs, but matches are not won on paper by rankings, it’s won on courts. We will fight hard,” he added.
India skipper Rohit Rajpal said he won’t take Morocco lightly. “Yes we are a stronger side but extremely humid conditions are a big challenge here. We were getting drenched even when we were just standing and not playing. That’s why we have changed the timing of the matches,” Rajpal said. “We are not doing those crazy training sessions, we have to save enough (energy) for the matches,” he added.
Rajpal admitted that India need to produce better singles players as the country has slipped to World Group II for the first time since the new format was launched in 2019. “Not enough good singles players have come. I feel Somdev (Burman) and Yuki (Bhambri) were the last. Also, we have run into some very tough teams. A captain is as good as his players,” he said.
Nagal and Sasi Mukund will play the singles while Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri will play the doubles match. Digvijay Pratap Singh is the fifth member of the squad.