Rohan Bopanna gets ready for Davis Cup farewell, India starts overwhelming favourite against Morocco

India faces Morocco in Davis Cup tie to celebrate Rohan Bopanna's 21-yr career. Lack of singles players, defeats in winnable matches hurt India. Yuki Bhambri stopped playing singles, Ramkumar Ramanathan dropped to 570. Bopanna still playing solid doubles, 43, top-10. India's number one singles player Sumit Nagal in good form. Morocco's number one Yassine Dlimi ranked 557, Adam Moundir 779. India faces weak opponents, but need roadmap for future. India lacks top-100 singles players

Hauling itself up from World Group II should not be a complicated task for India when it takes on an unostentatious Morocco in the home tie, which will be more of a celebration of Rohan Bopanna's Davis Cup career, which will come to a halt after 21 years on September 17.

The lack of singles players who could challenge the big boys of the ATP circuit, coupled with defeats in winnable matches, has hurt the Indian Davis Cup team badly in the last few years in this team tournament, but relegation to World Group II was a new low the Indian team hit in February.

It was for the first time since the new format was launched in 2019 that the Indians dropped to this level.

Much has changed since India last played in the Davis Cup tie in March, when it lost 2-3 to Denmark.

Indian tennis has hardly had any memorable moments this season until Bopanna reached the US Open final last week.

It's not just the lack of on-court results in singles; off-court, the country also felt the disappointment of losing its only ATP 250 event.

Yuki Bhambri, one of the finest players India has seen, has stopped playing the singles format. Ramkumar Ramanathan has dropped out of even the top-550 and is languishing at number 570.