The junior Indian tennis contingent created history after securing a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Japan in the final of the 2022 Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying event at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday (April 16). This was their maiden title in the competition as the team qualified for the Junior Davis Cup Finals.
Japan began the proceedings with a win in the first Men's Singles match after Naoya Honda secured a 3-6, 6-3, 2-6 victory over Bushan Haobam to give their team an early lead. However, they were pegged back by Rushil Khosla, who beat Yuta Tomida 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 to equalise the score 1-1 between the two sides.
The decider was the Men's Doubles fixture, which was played between Bushan Haobam and Rushil Khosla against Japan's Naoya Honda and Rushil Khosla. It was an easy victory for the Indian team, who wrapped up the match in two games, beating their Japanese opponents 6-3, 6-4 to win the country's first-ever title.
Speaking to The Bridge after their thrilling victory, youngster Rushil Khosla said, "The atmosphere at the stadium today was electric! I could play there all day, the crowd cheered very loudly and it sometimes even over-pumped me. In fact, in my singles rubber today against Japan, I had no trouble breaking my opponent in the first set but in the second, the crowd was so charged up, I had to signal them to quieten down a little, it was so much energy that sometimes it can be a bit too much."
Their victory earned praises from Anil Jain, President of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), and Anil Dhupar, the Honourary Secretary-General of AITA, for their fabulous performances. The other two teams who qualified for the World Finals are Japan and Australia.
On the way to the final, the Indian team beat Iran 2-1 and then Kazakhstan were also defeated with the same scoreline to qualify for the final against Japan.
