Crunch time on day 1. Some of the hosts felt very sure that Casper Ruud’s appearance in Lillehammer might be like a living wildcard for an easy cruise to beat India. However, the guests were known as a big upset nation. The first day was already expected to give a hint about what will be going on in Norway in September 2022. The US Open finalist was under pressure to make his countrymen happy in the first rubber against Prajnesh Gunneswaran.
|
Norway |
India |
|
Fr 18:00 |
Casper Ruud |
Prajnesh Gunneswaran |
6-1 6-4 |
thereafter |
Viktor Durasovic |
Ramkumar Ramathan |
6-1 6-4 |
This posting comes with an overall of 514 major size pictures in a dedicated picture gallery for this Davis Cup tie. Also see links below.
The Tennis Davis Cup coverage from Lilliehammer is done in collaboration with

The match reports are taken 1:1 from my coverage there and might thus be biased towards the Indian team.
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony took place before the first singles match. Here are some impressions










1st Singles: Casper Ruud – Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-1 6-4
The first set score reads like the Nordic rolling over Prajnesh, but our guy gave the hosts actually a good fight. The most characteristic game of the match was likely the fourth one, when Prajnesh was 30-15 in the lead at own serve, but three close calls (two times close shots by him which just did not touch the line in contrast to the final Ruud shot) gave three straight points for Ruud in a row. The first set had some nice rallyes, especially in the beginning, when Prajnesh felt even to be able to cause some trouble at Ruud’s serve. Finally, two aces at the score of 5-0 for Casper Ruud prevented to start the tie with a bagel score – which would have been absolutely undeserved after a not that bad set anyway.






Prajnesh started to serve in the second set – and that felt to work out much better. At Ruud’s first serve of the second, a high but sufficiently precise volley stop saved the Norwegian from an uncomfortable situation. Furthermore, Casper took advantage of a short weak point in the Indian’s game the serve thereafter. Again, the close calls were significantly in favor of the host nation – maybe one of these things which just happen when you are world #2. Prajnesh gave a great fight. There was absolutely no trouble at own serve. However, the some 2,000 people home crowd did not have too many reasons to become nervous as well. Being at serve at the second set score of 5-4, Casper Ruud converted his first match point to give the lead for Norway.











2nd Singles: Viktor Durasovic – Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-1 6-4
When our player takes the pee break after a rather short first set, that just can mean that India was in trouble in this one. The match started rather well for Ramkumar, who even lead 0-30 in the first game at Durasovic’s serve. The Trondheim-born Norwegian was finally perfectly prepared for the offensive style of Ramkumar. Hardly any serve and volley attack gave a happy ending for the Indian team. The fourth game, in which Ramkumar had several chances to tie the score to 2-2, was finally the one which made the crowd cheer loudly for the very first time on this evening. Durasovic took the break and dominated the match thereafter. Just after 30 minutes, Norway took the first set in this second rubber.









The second set was a very balanced set with versatile tennis strategies. From serve and volley to slice rallyes- Ramkumar and Durasovic gave the fans an enjoyable time. Durasovic made the Norwegians smile in the third game of the match, when he finally broke Ramkumar after a long game. The circumstances were weird with people shouting during a long point and the venue host suddenly crossing the court when India faced the deciding break point. Ramkumar just struggled with this situation more than needed. Especially in the fifth game, India had the chance to come back, but Durasovic had the answer to any critical situation this evening. The last games of the match went straight for the respective server, so that the Norwegians finished the day in happiness. For the tennis miracle, India first of all has to take its role as favorites in doubles tomorrow, before Rohit Rajpal’s team has to win both singles thereafter to avoid loosing the tie.











Norway vs. India Davis Cup 2022 – Galleries
All Flyctory.com pictures from Lillehammer will be gathered in a dedicated gallery group in the sports galleries. I will add links here once I started to put (match and practice) pictures to galleries:
Flyctory.com about Indian Tennis
Here are all postings related to Indian Tennis:
has come to an end - and my Best of posting is the one which is "traditionally" concluding the year. The ...
Last Thursday has been a very special moment in the history of my blog Flyctory.com. I a sure most of ...
The highlight of my trip to the Infosys Hall of Fame Open 2024 was of course the Saturday evening ceremony ...
After their promising first round victory, the Indian doubles pairing Ariundh Chandrasekar and Arjun Kadhe had to play their quarterfinal ...
The big moment is coming closer. On Thursday, 18th July 2024, the three inductees into the International Tennis Hall of ...
The last Indian player to kick off duties at Newport was Ramkumar Ramathan. Getting into the men's doubles main draw ...
After Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha had already bowed out of the Infosys Hall of Fame Open 2024 ...
Around 100 degrees Fahrenheid and high humidity - the Indian team Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha could not ...
A very special week lies ahead of me. On Saturday, I will fly over to Boston and drive on to ...
Since a couple of years, I have a group of so-called Featured Artists - musicians, which are in a special ...
In the life of a sports fan, there are those days you simply remember. Great victories and upsets, huge disappointments, ...
A 75k ATP Challenger right next to the city where I grew up? Troisdorf near Bonn and their tennis club ...
After Norway took the straight lead on Day 1, they were almost mandated to get to the Qualifiers of 2023 ...
One year after being with the Indian team in Espoo, Finland, I was so flattered that it was Davis Cup ...
It is time for the final posting of the years, simply named The Best Ones 2021. After looking into my ...
There is one guy which gave me the initial crush with Indian tennis - Leander Paes. But in fact the ...
Covid-19 and the corresponding social distancing rules make it rather hard to meet with the team before and interact with ...
Hard to argue against that Finland was in the comfort position at this World Group I playoff tie in Espoo ...
Tennis Davis Cup again. I was really flattered about the first day in Espoo between Finland and India. Will there ...
My team is back in Europe! Three years after the Davis Cup tie in Serbia, I am glad to support ...
Unfortunately, my work schedule on the Championship week Wednesday was a bit busy, so that I had to rush from ...
Second week in the Cologne LANXESSarena, second tournament: more or less in parallel to the first week tournament victory by ...
Due to all the Covid-19 regulations and local restrictions the male tennis ATP Tour set up some new tournaments in ...
On the fourth day of my Weird Al & Grass Court Tennis trip in July 2019, I visited the Tennis ...
After having two Weird Al Yankovic concerts on the second and third day of my trip, tennis was in focus ...
With the suprising Serbian doubles rubber upset on Day 2, the Sunday match just featured a dead rubber. It was ...
Trailing 0-2, India was under pressure for the second day which features the doubles. However, the guests having the best-ranked ...
The first day in Kraljevo: The teams' number ones were under special pleasure as it more or less their "mandatory" ...
Thursday evening in Kraljevo. The city some two hours away from Belgrade is ready for the Davis Cup playoffs. It ...
Tianjin, China. Tennis Davis Cup, one of my most beloved sports competitions. He was intended to be the hero, the ...
Spotlight – Flyctory.com Interviews
Here are all postings of my interview section Spotlight:
It late January 2025, I introduced you to the third EP by the German artist Luna Morgenstern, Heartbreak Hotel. Luna and ...
Last week, Frances Darling had a big day in her young career. With the song Flight Risk, the US-American-German artist released ...
This episode of my Spotlight interviews was one I was looking forward to for a long time. Australian Chelsea Berman ...
Tyler Sjöström played acoustic sets between the main stage acts during the first and second day of the Sound of ...
Ben / Benjamin Moske is a quite well-known artist in the Northern German singer-songwriter scene. His songs are influenced by ...
Georgia Nevada felt to have the potential to become one of the key British country and Americana artists in the ...
A really nice way to see that Flyctory.com has established and has a certain history is that some artist happen ...
The Cumberland River Project is on the final straight towards a new release. On 22nd March 2023, Frank Renfordt and ...
The British country music artist Twinnie will always be a special person to me. The very first time I saw ...
I am always flattered when there are new, interesting German acts who are releasing country music. This week on Flyctory.com ...
Over two million followers on YouTube, slightly less on TikTok and still about half a million on Instagram - Indonesia's ...
It is very hard to put the music by Israeli artist Dekel into a single genre. There is a touch ...
This April 2023 episode of my Spotlight interviews is one I have been a bit of nervous about, indeed. After ...
I have been so excited about that news that she will be touring Europe soon: Jessica Lynn is such an ...
Julian Taylor is just about to make it to Germany and the Netherlands. Right before the Sound of Nashville shows ...
When I thought about the concept of Flyctory.com, I wanted to bring people together. I wanted to teach travelers about ...
I follow the British country music artist Vic Allen since quite a while already. You also find some pictures of ...
My first Spotlight interview of the year 2023 is with US country artist Zye Ca$h. He is having a rap ...
They started in school years in Kassel, Germany and are now a global musical success. The song Stolen Dance catapulted the German ...
This is already the second time I met Nik Wallner for a Spotlight interview on Flyctory.com. While the first time we chatted ...
I am already flattered to head to the United States. I am going to Florida next week to see five ...
What an amazing series of country music interviews on Flyctory.com in September 2022: after I finally managed to publish the ...
I simply cannot deny that I have been a bit more nervous before this Spotlight interview. While most of the ...
Great to have a new country music interview in my Spotlight section right at the beginning of August 2022! The artist I ...
I am really glad to present you a new artist in my Spotlight interview section. Tomas Rimeika became quite famous ...
Upsahl is a pop-rock singer-songweiter from Phoenix, Arizona. Just before she is setting foot on German soil during her 2022 ...
Just this weekend, I introduced you to Fear & Dagger, the second album by the Swiss beatdown band Paleface. Even though ...
If you think about Dutch country music, you definitely think about Ilse DeLange. Of course, if you follow my blog, ...
Rickie Lee Kroell, the second time: I just introduced you to the pop artist and her new EP Hauptsache was mit ...
The Canadian country recording artist and songwriter Jesse is about to release a new single this week: On Friday (4th ...
Ontario, Nashville, Scotland - Brittany Brodie is home somehow in many places in the world. I have been in contact ...
It's been quite a while since I released my previous Spotlight interview. The more, I feel flattered to dip into ...
Lori Rayne, Stephanie Ryann and now Presley Aronson - after I had quite a break from my Flyctory.com Spotlight interviews, ...
Even though Stephanie Ryann is already in her mid-30's, the New England artist is not a stranger to North American ...
It's been quite a while since I published my last Spotlight interview. The more, I feel flattered to have a ...
A debut on Flyctory.com: this week, I am featuring a very special interview in my Spotlight interview category. While I ...
Linda Mar (or Linda Marlen Runge, which is her civil name) is truly a multi-talent in performing: Likely, most people ...
After my recent Spotlight interview episode with Christina Taylor, I feel really gifted to chat with another very interesting Nashville ...
It's been quite a while that I released my last Spotlight interview. The more I am happy that I have ...
Emma Stevens is not only one of the big names of the British country / folk music scene, she is ...
I am always happy to chat with German artists on my blog in the Spotlight interview category. Ann Doka is ...
Brian John Harwood is indeed an interesting artist. Not just only as one part of Kansas Stone, Harwood is a ...
Frances Luke Accord is a US-American folk music duo, which has been founded during their common time at high school ...
Carrie Welling is a very interesting folk / Americana artist, who is nowadays living in Nashville. She was born in ...
Right at the beginning of the 2020 holiday season, I had a very interesting chat with Tristan Cole. The North ...
Nikita Skogen just released her debut single, Break Your Heart. Nonetheless, the Norwegian country music artist already has gained comparably quite ...
When you look at European country music, you very often purely focus on British artists. However, the German country music ...
This week, I am gifted to have very interesting interviews again in my Flyctory.com Spotlight section. Just a few days ...
When I reviewed her album Lucky in mid September 2020, I felt that the bio information about the country artist ...
Emily Lockett is am impressive young British artist, just at the end of her teen-ages. After I saw her live ...
Riley Whittaker contacted me just some one or two weeks ago. She is a young artist from Sedona, Arizona, who ...
In the recent past, my Spotlight interview section hosted some very interesting young artists as well. For example, I chatted with ...
Just in time: one day before Jim "Kimo" West will release his new album More Guitar Stories, I had the opportunity ...
I am really gifted to chat with some interesting artists in August 2020 in my Spotlight interview section. Right after I ...
In my Spotlight category, I am dealing with another interesting artist. Sandra North is originally from Trosa South of Stockholm ...
It's quite a while since I published my latest Spotlight interview episode with Carolyn Miller in mid-June 2020. The more ...
Meeting Carolyn Miller and seeing her playing live on stage at the BB King was one of the hightlights during ...
When I was scanning songs for my New Country Hits Playlist, I ran into Lightning by the Colorado artist Kimi Most ...
Lucy LaForge is the head and lead singer behind Lucy & La Mer. Based in Los Angeles, the singer / ...
I am really glad that my Spotlight interview section is growing and also having some increasing popularity. In this interview, I met ...
I was really looking forward to have this chat with Rob Favotto, who is an Australian artist doing instrumental music ...
I ran into the music of Sylvia Aimee, a Dutch country music artist, some one year ago. The quality of ...
Already the first single Back On The Road felt very promising - and at least when The Cumberland River Project released their ...
Buy her incredible debut album No Saint during the C2C in Berlin in 2019 was maybe one of the events ...
While my Spotlight Interview so far have been concentrated in the country music scene, I was very happy to run ...
In this edition of my Spotlight interviews, I ran into a very interesting - and nice - artists in the British ...
Many people in the German country music business see a lot of potential in Southern German artist Nik Wallner. At ...
Van De Forst is one of the most interesting German country music / country pop music act. Vanessa, the person ...