Leander Paes once again turned out to be India's saviour as he along with debutant Sunil Kumar Sipaeya won the crucial doubles rubber against Uzbekistan in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 first round tie in Namangam on Saturday.
Paes and Sipaeya registered a hardfought 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory against Farrukh Dustov and Denis Istomin to give India some hope after they had lost both the opening singles on Friday.
Vivek Shokeen went down tamely to Istomin 1-6, 3-6, 3-6, in the first match yesterday, with Karan Rastogi also following suit with a 3-6, 3-6, 4-6 loss to Dustov.
The reverse singles will be played on Sunday.
Rastogi is slated to play Istomin in the first match followed by Shokeen against Dustov in the second and last rubber.
Rohan Bopanna, Prakash Amritraj and Harsh Mankad are absent due to injury and personal reasons.
Apart from Paes, all others in the current team are making their Davis Cup debut.
If India win the tie, they would face Korea in the second round at home, while a loss would see play Kazakhstan, the venue of which would be decided by toss of the coin.
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