DAVIS CUP PREVIEW: INDIA VS NETHERLANDS

Over a century after they first met in the competition, India and the Netherlands find themselves paired together for the fifth time in Davis Cup history, with the clash set for the historic courts of Bengalaru on 7 and 8 February.

Credit: Davis Cup / ITF

The head-to-head between these two proud tennis nations stands at 2-2 but this is the first renewal since 2003 when Martin Verkerk and Sjeng Schalken set the Dutch on their way to a 5-0 whitewash. A certain Rohan Bopanna played both a singles and the doubles in India’s losing effort.

With both teams fielding two specialists, there is an argument to be made that this should be all about the doubles. India has a fine tradition of doubles players – Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi tugging at the nostalgia cord for tennis fans of a certain age – and Yuki Bhambri, currently ranked 20 in the world, continues it.

A former top-100 singles player, Bhambri has transitioned to full-time doubles and last month reached the third round of the Australian Open with Sweden’s Andre Goransson. He got to the semifinals of last year’s US Open playing with New Zealand veteran Michael Venus.

In Bengalaru, Bhambri will partner for the first time in Davis Cup with Rithvyk Choudhary Bollipalli, who partnered N. Sriram Balaji in a losing effort against Dominic Stricker and Jakub Paul in the otherwise winning tie against Switzerland last September.

The 25-year-old Bollipalli is no doubles slouch himself, currently standing at 90 in the world rankings and having won two ATP 250 titles.

The Netherlands play doubles well too. David Pel is one of the best tennis players in the world that nobody outside of tennis has ever heard of. Ranked 29 in the world, he was a beaten finalist at Wimbledon with Rinky Hijikata in 2025.

Pel partners Sander Arends, another grizzled veteran of the doubles tour who won three ATP titles in 2025, the 250 Hong Kong Tennis Open and Swedish Open and the 500-level Barcelona Open. Luke Johnson was his partner in Hong Kong and Barcelona while he teamed up with Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi in Sweden.

Arends is currently ranked world number 40. His previous experience of Davis Cup came in a losing effort against Argentina last September.

To get to the Doubles in Davis Cup, the Singles comes first and for India, a lot will depend on the fitness of Sumit Nagal.

Nagal was inside the top 100 in 2024 but had a chastening 2025 season and has dropped into the mid-200s. A Davis Cup talisman for India with eight victories to his name, if he is healthy and on form, he can make the difference.

Karan Singh and Dhakshineswar Suresh are the other selected players. The 22-year-old Singh comes into the tie having won his first three professional titles since May last year. His most recent came last month in Hyderabad, where he claimed a straight-sets victory over Max Houke, who is also in the visitors' lineup.

Suresh pulled off an upset in the tie against Switzerland, beating Jerome Kym in straight sets. He's also won an impressive number of matches since last summer, making three Challenger quarterfinals in that time. Other notable results include qualification for his first ATP Tour event in Winston-Salem, where he beat Alejandro Tabilo, as well as capturing an ITF title at the same venue.

Jesper de Jong will lead off in singles for the Netherlands. The world number 88 comes in off a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne but can be a formidable opponent on any occasion. Completing the lineup is Guy den Ouden, a Pepperdine University graduate who made steady progress on the Challenger Tour in 2025 and is one to watch going forward.

India’s Captain is Rohit Rajpal while Paul Haarhuis fills the same role for the Netherlands. Haarhuis was famously on the wrong end of a raucous “Peoples’ Sunday” going down 14-12 in the 5^th set against Tim Henman at Wimbledon in 1997.