New Delhi, Sep 19: Even as India and Czech Republic players fought it out at the DLTA courts for top honours, off it a small section of Czech fans gave a tough challenge to the home crowd as far as cheering for their teams was concerned at the Davis Cup World Group Play-off tie. A travelling contingent of approximately 80-odd people plus more than 20 Czechs residing in the Capital came out to rally behind their team with roof-lifting cheers accompanying every point scored by the visiting players.
The entire bunch shouted slogans in their language like ‘Let’s go Czechs’ and ‘Go Czechs go’ with their flags fluttering in the strong breeze here. It was so energetic that sometimes it drowned the Indian fans’ voices as well as the beats of the drums. Compared to the opening day of the tie, today being Saturday, the spectators turned up in large numbers. And the fact that Indian veteran Leander Paes was in action and along with his partner Rohan Bopanna were the favourites to win over the Czech team, certainly added to the zeal. (Also Read: Davis Cup 2015: Arnaud Clement sacked as France Davis Cup captain)
Milan Hovorka, the Ambassador of Czech Republic to India, said that the Czech fans were extremely keen to visit India and support their team at the Davis Cup. ”We have distributed about 140 tickets to the Czech supporters. About 80 people have travelled all the way from Czech Republic, while many others, who are staying here have also come here. So more than 100 Czech fans have come out to support the team,” said the ambassador. ”It is one of the biggest sporting events between India and Czech Republic, and it is great to witness some of the most competitive matches being played by both the sides,” he added.
A big contingent travel to every country, where the Czechs are playing their Davis Cup tie. Hovorka insisted that the reason for so many people to have come to India is the keenness to explore some part of the country. ”There is a core team of people who travel regularly with the Davis Cup team but here a larger contingent has come as they wanted to explore some parts of India as well, apart from watching the matches,” said Hovorka. ”Some of them had visited Arga on Thursday, saw the Taj Mahal and other forts, while others are also planning to visit some of the places near Delhi in the next couple of days,” he said.
A visiting team member, Michael said, “It was a good experience coming here and supporting the team. It is really good to have an electrifying atmosphere in the stadium. It was missing yesterday but today being the weekend, lot of crowd have come and it is really nice. ”Despite overwhelming presence of the Indian fans, we managed to give a good support to our team,” he said.