MCC organises get-together to commemorate 50th anniversary of India’s first Davis Cup final appearance in the Open era

The Madras Cricket Club organised a grand get-together to commemorate the 50th anniversary of India’s first Davis Cup final appearance in the Open era of tennis on Monday.

It was an evening filled with warm nostalgia about a period in tennis when India punched above its weight in the sport. In 1974, the Indian squad comprising the Amritraj brothers—Vijay and Anand—along with Jasjit Singh and Sashi Menon stunned some big teams to reach the final, only for the government to forfeit the summit clash against South Africa due to the latter’s apartheid policy.

Anand and Vijay spoke about the road to the final, recalling the matches against Japan, Australia and the Soviet Union and their feelings about the forfeit.

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“After we beat Australia, we hoped Italy would beat South Africa in the other semifinals because we knew apartheid could be an issue. I still believe we should have gone and played. We would have beaten them 4-1, and it would have been a great lesson to beat an all-white team on their home soil with two non-white players,” said Anand.

Later in the evening, Ramesh Krishnan spoke about the team’s tremendous run to the final yet again in 1987, alongside the Amritraj brothers and S. Vasudevan, who were all felicitated by the club.

MCC also felicitated former and current Indian tennis players Somdev Devvarman, G. Prajnesh, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Lakshmi Mahadevan and Sai Jayalakshmi.