Dream is to play Davis Cup singles for country: Navdeep

Mumbai, Sep 24 (UNI) Navdeep Singh, who joined wildcarders Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Varman to qualify for the mian draw after a hard fought victory over countrymate Yuki Bhambri in the final qualifying match, said his dream is to play Davis Cup singles for India.

The 21-year-old said he did not expect to make the main draw of an ATP event and that too in his first ATP tourney.

He further said he did not let the pressure to get to him and think too ahead taking it one match at a time.

''I think this helped as if I had thought too ahead I might have let the pressure get to me and might have lost early,'' he explained.

When asked whether he thinks he has a chance of progressing further in this tournament, the confident young lad said if he played like he had been on the last two days, anything could happen and added he definitely fancies his chances of creating an upset or two.

Speaking about today's match against Yuki Bhambri, Singh said after the first set, he had started to feel tired.

''I felt as if I had lost power on my upper body and it became difficult to get power into my shots. However, I kept fighting and kept the pressure up to finally come through and make the main draw.'' On Bhambri's superb fight back, Singh said he had expected such a performance from the 16-year-old.

''However, I was lucky when Yuki started cramping and that gave me an edge in the third round which I won in a tie-breaker,'' he reasoned.

Singh also revealed that he had been to England before this tournament to work on his fitness.

''The transition from the junior to the senior level is not easy and I have realised that I have to work on my fitness to sustain myself in the professional circuit,'' he said, adding, ''my aim for the end of the current year is to break into the top 500 in the world.'' UNI