Amritraj starts against Romanian number two

BUCHAREST (Romania): Prakash Amritraj takes on Victor Crivoi  in the opening rubber while in-form Somdev Devvarman faces Romanian number one Victor Hanescu in the crucial World Group play-off tie starting here on Friday.
    
With Amritraj struggling with form, young Somdev will have to shoulder a big responsibility and win both his matches while the combo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will have to live up to their reputation against Cruciat and Horia Tecau in the doubles if India has to book a place in Davis Cup World Group.
    
If Somdev, who has shown an exceptionally good form in the last three months, came through the rubber against Hanescu, India could be in for a great chance because he plays lower-ranked Victor Crivoi in the reverse singles while Amritraj will be up against Hanescu.
    
India had defeated Japan in the Asia/Oceania Group semi-finals to earn the right to contest in the World Group play-off while Romania lost to France in first round of World Group to drop to play-offs.
    
India last played in the World Group in 1998 when it lost to Italy 1-4 on clay in the away tie.
    
This is the fourth meeting between India and Romania with the hots leading the head-to-head 2-1, having won the last two encounters in 1969 and 1971. India's only victory against Romania came in 1922.
    
The visitors dropped Rohan Bopanna from the team to include Somdev and have a non-playing captain in S P Mishra as Paes decided to step down as the skipper after the Beijing Olympics.
    
This was after Bhupathi, Amritraj, Bopanna revolted against Paes by questioning his leadership qualities ahead of the Japan tie in April.
    
Indians have a dominating game on grass courts but this crucial tie is being played on clay court and Romanians, led by world number 67 Victor Hanescu, surely hold advantage.
    
The hosts have made two changes in their side, bringing in Adrian Cruciat (ranked 170) and Victor Crivoi (158) in place of Andrei Pavel and Florin Mergea.
    
Horia Tecau makes the fourth member of the team with Florin Segarceanu as non-playing captain.
    
Prakash is yet to play a clay court match in the Davis Cup and his current form could be a worry for the team though he did well earlier.
    
Somdev will play only his second Davis Cup tie but showed prime form as he won an ATP Challenger tournament in Lexington and reached quarterfinals of Vancouver Challenger in July.
    
He also reached the last-eight stage of the Washington ATP event last month and toppled top-100 players like American Bobby Reynolds and gave a tough fight to World number 18 Nicolas Almargo before losing to him in another ATP event.
    
His ranking soared to 242 due the stupendous run and he became the second highest ranked Indian on the ATP singles chart.
    
Prakash, on the other hand, has seen a sudden slump in form as he tamely lost both the Challengers at New Delhi just last month.
    
His biggest success came when he reached final of the Newport ATP event in July and was first Indian in a decade to do so since Paes.
    
He also reached quarterfinals of two ATP Challengers in Dublin and Aptos in June and July respectively.