Manas Dhamne gets his first Davis Cup call-up as India head to Seoul
The 18-year-old from Satara joins Nagal and Suresh for the second qualifying round against Korea, with a Final 8 place in Bologna on the line.
Yuki Bhambri in a Davis Cup tie in Bengaluru in 2013 — still the doubles half of the Seoul squad that just added Manas Dhamne.
Photo: MrEccentric / CC BY-SA 3.0
India named its Davis Cup squad on Monday, and Manas Dhamne is on it for the first time. The 18-year-old from Satara joins the five-man side that will play Korea in Seoul on September 18 and 19, on the hard courts at the Olympic Tennis Centre. The winner of that second qualifying round goes to the Final 8 in Bologna in November. India has not reached that stage since the format changed in 2019.
The rest of the team is the group that beat the Netherlands 3–2 in Bengaluru in February: Sumit Nagal, Dhakshineswar Suresh, Yuki Bhambri, and N. Sriram Balaji. Dhamne is the only change — he was not available last time. A selector told PTI that captain Rohit Rajpal will decide whether he suits the conditions.
Suresh carried that weekend. Ranked outside the top 350, he beat world No. 88 Jesper de Jong, then beat Guy Den Ouden to close the tie, and won the doubles with Bhambri in between. Nagal is still India’s top singles player, at No. 235. Bhambri and Balaji, ranked 28 and 57 in doubles, are the settled pair.
Dhamne grew up in Satara and Pune, then left for Bordighera, Italy, to train with Riccardo Piatti — the same coach who has worked with Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. In January 2023, as a 15-year-old wildcard at the Tata Open in Pune, he became the first player born in 2007 to play an ATP main-draw match. He lost to Michael Mmoh. He is still 0–1 at that level.
Last week he reached a career-high No. 362, which puts him ahead of Suresh on paper and behind only Nagal in this squad.
Korea are ranked 16th, three spots above India. In February they came from 1–2 down to beat Argentina 3–2 in Busan. Kwon Soon-woo and Hyeon Chung, the 2018 Australian Open semifinalist, won the last two singles in front of a loud home crowd. Seoul will be another home hard-court weekend. The last time these sides met, India won 4–1 on grass in Chandigarh in 2016.
Rajpal has three singles players and a settled doubles pair, and Suresh just earned the last weekend. Dhamne’s job for now is to be ready if the captain wants a third option. Getting to Bologna still depends on five matches in Seoul, and nobody has said who plays them.