Harsh Mankad packed off Sun Peng in straight sets to give India a 1-0 lead in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group I tie against China in New Delhi on Friday.
The 25-year-old, predominantly a hard court player, showed that he had the skill to win matches on grass as well, defeating the top-ranked Chinese 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in just under two hours to give India a winning start.
Playing at home for the first time, the 301-ranked Indian took full advantage of the inexperience of his opponent on grass at the centre court of the R K Khanna Stadium.
The start of the match was delayed by an hour and half due to overnight rains which had rendered the playing surface a bit slippery but nothing seemed to bother Harsh as he went about his task in clinical fashion.
Although Harsh, who hit 10 aces in the match, began rather erratically conceding two break points in the opening game, he came up with two successive aces to hold his serve.
The Indian took a 2-0 lead by breaking Peng in the second game but his own serve deserted him in the very next game as the Chinese got back into the set.
Though none of the players looked at ease on the patchy surface in the beginning, both managed to hold their serves till the 11th game when Harsh came under pressure and had to save two break points.
The Indian then came up with a couple of great winners as he converted the set's fourth break point to take the lead.
With Harsh beginning to find his feet, Peng was made to play catch up in the second set as he lost his serve in the fourth game and trailed 4-1 at one stage.
On the other hand, the Indian did not let nerves unsettle him and infact never had a break point against him as he easily held on to his service games to take the set 6-3.
The third and final set was a one-sided affair as Harsh came up with winners at will to tame the Chinese.
Harsh broke Peng in the fifth and seventh game to wrap up the tie and give India a vital lead.
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