Poor start let me down: Prajnesh

KOLKATA: Having drawn a tough opponent like Italy, India made the obvious choice of playing on grass to give themselves a chance of scripting an upset. But the visitors were just too good at the South Club on Friday and cruised to a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup Qualifier.


After

Ramkumar Ramanathan

blew his opportunity against

Andreas Seppi

to lose the opening rubber in straight sets, Indian hopes were pinned on

Prajnesh Gunneswaran

. But the Indian No. 1 didn't come close to putting up a challenge against Davis Cup debutant

Matteo Berrettini

. "I started the match badly and was broken in the first game in both sets. That created a lot of pressure and he (Berrettini) played more aggressively than I did," Prajnesh said after his 4-6, 3-6 loss.

Reflecting on the scoreline at the end of Day 1, India's non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi said: "We are disappointed but stranger things have happened in the past. We came back from 0-2 down against China last year. The Italians are much better, but we are not ruling ourselves out. We had our chance in the first set of the opening rubber, but after that the momentum swung."

The captain is banking on Rohan Boppana and Dijiv Sharan to win the must-win doubles on Saturday morning. "Right now, the focus is to win the doubles and from there we will try to use the momentum and take one match at a time," added Bhupathi.