The sports wrap: India beat New Zealand 4-1 in Davis Cup, and other top stories

The big story:

India romped to a 4-1 win in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group I first-round clash against New Zealand in Pune on Sunday after Ramkumar Ramanthan defeated Finn Tearney 7-5, 6-1, 6-0. In the second encounter, Yuki Bhambri beat Jose Statham 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.

In the first match, the first set was contested evenly with both players holding serve. Ramkumar Ramanthan’s big serves kept him in good stead as the world No. 276 saved three break points in the fourth game and went 3-2 up.

Meanwhile, Bhambri made a magnificent comeback in the first set, winning four games on the trot to come back from 2-5 down and win the set 7-5.

Cricket

England U-19 coach Mark Ramprakash said that his focus was to developing careers and not the results, “It’s important for me not to forget how young they are and how little cricket they’ve played,” Ramprakash said.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has been ruled out of the tour of Australia with an injury.
India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha insisted that India will not be taking Bangladesh lightly in the one-off Test in Hyderabad.

Football

Manchester City beat Swansea City 2-1 through a Gabriel Jesus double in the first English Premier League on Sunday.
Manchester United thumped Leicester City 3-0 at the King Power Stadium. The Red Devils are only one point behind Liverpool.
Chelsea skipper John Terry called for experienced players to be fast-tracked into coaching, “This generation of footballers have earned very good money throughout their time, and we need to make it easier for them to get into coaching roles by not doing the full length of the FA coaching course, which I know [technical director] Dan Ashworth at the FA is on board with,” Terry said.
Rising Student’s Club jumped to the to the top of the Indian Women’s League table with a thumping 5-0 win against FC Pune City at New Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium.
Shillong Lajong’s remarkable progress after losing their first three I-League matches continued with a battling 1-0 win over Churchill Brothers.
Bengaluru FC survived from slumping to a fourth successive defeat in all competitions by earning a comeback draw against DSK Shivajians at Pune’s Balewadi Stadium. The match ended 2-2.
East Bengal posted their sixth consecutive win in the I-League and restored their three-point lead at the top of the table ahead of the Kolkata derby against Mohun Bagan next week with an excellent 3-0 win against Chennai City.

Tennis

India’s former Davis Cup and Fed Cup coach Enrico Piperno stated it is nearly impossible for the country’s tennis players to make the world’s top-50 as there is neither funding nor infrastructure to produce bankable talent, “It is almost impossible now, the closest being Somdev [Devvarman] who was ranked 62nd. The reason is, where is the support, where is the funding? Where is the infrastructure in place? Where are the kids to bank on?” he was quoted as saying by PTI.