Davis Cup: India to host Spain under flood-lights

By Amanpreet Singh New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) In its endeavour to bring morefans to the stadium for watching the Indian Davis Cup team inaction against formidable Spain, the DLTA has decided toconduct the World Group Play-off tie this month underflood-lights with singles matches starting at 5 in theevening. The two singles matches on the opening day of the crucialtie on September 16, will begin at 5pm while the doublesrubber will start at 7pm, the next day. The two reverse singles on the final day of tie willagain start at 5pm in the evening. The decision was taken at a recent DLTA Executivemeeting. The singles matches during the World Group Play-off tieagainst Serbia, held in September 2014, had begun at 3pm, soit can easily be said that this will be India’s first evertie, where the matches will begin so late in the evening. "We want fans to come and cheer for the Indian players.We deliberated upon the idea how to bring more people totennis stadium. We have kept those people in mind who have toattend offices during the day. They should not miss thisopportunity to watch Indian as well Spanish tennis stars inaction," a DLTA official told PTI. "Also it’s going to be very humid. The evening start willhelp players play to their best abilities. We spoke to playersto discuss the idea and only after they agreed to it, it wasdecided to have matches in the evening," the official added. The tie has already generated interest after Spanishicon Rafael Nadal, winner of 14 Grand Slam singles titles,stated that the India visit is on his schedule. Although Nadal’s availability for the tie would depend onhow he performs at the US Open, the DLTA has done well bytaking this decision. The dwindling attendance at the cricket stadiums duringthe five-day Test matches had worried the sportsadministrators and organisers across the world are keenlyexperimenting with the idea of hosting Day/Night Test matches. BCCI, for the first time, is hosting its domestic DuleepTrophy with pink ball under lights. PTI AT PMPM