India's Unique Record in the Davis Cup

Even if we haven't witnessed the Indian team secure a win, they have delivered some impressive performances over the years. None more so than on their debut in 1921, when India turned heads after beating France to reach the semi-final.

Over the years, Indian players have tackled tough contenders, and have defeated them.

In the 1960s, India became the Zonal Champions and played the Inter-Zonal finals as well. 1966 marks India's first appearance in the Davis Cup finals when Ramanathan Krishnan teamed with Premjit Lal, S. P. Misra and Jaidip Mukherjea.

In 1974, history repeated itself as Indians Vijay and Anand Amritraj, reached the Davis Cup final. However, India decided to skip the final in protest of apartheid policies that took hold of their opponent, South Africa.

The 1980s era birthed another Indian tennis prodigy, Ramesh Krishnan, who pacified India's entry into the third Davis Cup final.

In 2004, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi teamed up and secured two victories.

India's best performances to date have been in 1966, 1974 and 1987. Apart from the aforementioned wins, there were other moments of glory seen in the World Group Play-offs and World Group stages of the draw.

In the 1987 World Group Semi-final in Sydney, the visitors were expected to lose after India's disappointing display in the 1977 and 1979 zonal semi-final ties. India took a 2-0 lead after winning both singles rubbers on the opening day. In the fifth rubber, Krishnan crushed Masur in straight sets to push India to their third and last Davis Cup final with a 3-2 margin.

Five years later, in the World Group Quarter-final, India surprisingly held their ground in outdoor clay in Cannes and won 3-2 thanks to Paes' exceptional delivery.

The World Group Qualifying First Round held in 1997 was also memorable for India, as Paes and Bhupathi teamed up and gave their opponent Chile a tough time. India finally retained its position in the 16-team World Group field.

India's series against Brazil in the 2010 World Group Play-offs held in Chennai took off with fierce gameplay by Thomaz Bellucci and Ricardo Mello. However, the home team made a turnaround that qualifies as one of India's best moments in the 81-year Davis Cup history. Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman, and Rohan Bopanna's collective efforts fell through and they clinched a win.

After that, the 2014 World Group Play-offs paved the way for another exceptional front delivered by India against Serbia. Hosted in Bangalore, the series started off in favour of the contending team. However, India picked up momentum after a 0-2 loss in the third match after which Devvarman bagged a win over Lajovic in the fourth one.

However, Krajinovic beat Bhambri in the deciding rubber to push his country to victory.

Despite India's dipping performance over the last few years, fans still hope to see budding Indian athletes make a difference.