Amritraj: ‘India’s best chance to win against Canada’

Former India Davis cup team captain Anand Amritraj said that the team stands the "best chance in the last four years" to win its upcoming Davis cup away tie versus Canada and get into the World group this year.

"If we are going to get into the World group, this is the year we do it."

Former India Davis cup team captain Anand Amritraj said that the team stands the "best chance in the last four years" to win its upcoming Davis cup away tie versus Canada and get into the World group this year.

“Canada in my opinion is probably the best team to draw as far as the top eight teams in the World group who lost in the first round are concerned. This is our golden chance. If we are going to get into the World group, this is the year we do it. And I hope that Yuki and Saketh are back, and we go in with a full-strength team. If they don't have Raonic playing - he hasn't played the last year or two - I think we have an extremely good chance. Best chance in the last four years definitely,” he said talking at the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association annual day function here on Sunday.

He added that he had two goals to try accomplish when he took over as the captain, and that he was able to achieve one of them.

"The first goal was to bring peace and harmony to the team. Because it was in a mess when I took over. There was in-fighting all over the place, comments in the newspapers flying back and forth, pretty much like last week actually (he was referring to the latest flare-up between Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi). But eventually I got the team together and we had a few changes here and there. The second goal I didn't manage to accomplish was to try and get us into the World group. Three times we were close to the world group play-offs but beaten by bad draws more than anything else," he said.