Nadal,Ferrer named in Spain’s squad for India Davis Cup tie

India will have to contend with none other than 14-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal as Spain today named a full strength team for the upcoming Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie.

Apart from world number five Nadal, who lost in the fourth round at the US Open, Spain has packed the side with world number 13 David Ferrer, world number 18 Feliciano Lopez and Mark Lopez (world number 19 in doubles).

India’s highest-ranked singles player Saketh Myneni is placed 143 in the ATP chart and Ramkumar Ramanathan is ranked 202. India though have competitive doubles players in the squad in Rohan Bopanna (world number 17 in doubles) and Leander Paes (ranked 62). “That is a fully loaded Spain team and it will be a battle for us. Hope it brings the best out of us,” Myneni told from New York, reacting to the squad announcement. 

While Spain are European powerhouse in the game, India have been consistently knocking the World Group doors. With the current set of players, it is likely to keep doing that, reaching the Play-off stage via Asia zone but to enter in World Group India need to better find singles players.