Davis Cupper Harsh Mankad on Tuesday said there was "no pressure" on captain Leander Paes [Images] to play the singles in the Asia-Oceania Group 1 second round tie against Uzbekistan starting in Jaipur on Friday.

Also Read India win Davis Cup tie against China Mankad, Amritraj make most of opportunity

"No, there is no pressure. Leander is the captain, it is his prerogative to decide the composition of the team. We all want the best Indian team to take the field," Mankad said at the Jai Club courts.

Paes, the player with most wins in Indian Davis Cup history, chose Mankad and Prakash Amritraj to play the singles matches in the first round against China in Delhi in March.

Mankad, however, might run into a player, Denis Istomin, who had defeated him twice on the last two occasions they met in the ITF circuit.

The Indian said he did not face any psychological barrier and was keen to avenge the losses.

"He beat me twice in ITF tournaments (in Delhi and Bangalore) but now I have matured and am looking forward to play him," he said.

Mankad arrived from Nottingham, where he gave a creditable performance by reaching the doubles final with Mustafa Ghouse and the semifinals of the singles event of a USD 25,000 ATP Challenger event.

The Mumbaikar beat Switzerland's [Images] world number 120 Ivo Huegberger on his way to the semis where he lost to evental champion Robin Vik. The runs saw him reach a career high ranking of 248 in the new week.

"I played some good matches there ... I feel I am in good nick," he said.

Mankad admitted that the surface for the tie, grass, posed a few problems for him.

"It is not my favourite surface and it is a difficult to play on but I can adapt to it," he said.

"I had little difficulty in previous tie against China at grass courts at DLTA (Delhi). I have been playing on grass courts during my early days," said the son of former Indian Test cricketer Ashok Mankad.

When asked why he took to tennis instead of following in his father's footsteps, Mankad said he was never encouraged to play cricket.

"Perhaps, his (father's) own experience was not that good but my mother, former national champion Nirupama Mankad, always helped me get into tennis. Though my first love was cricket only, I got into tennis at the age of seven."

When asked if he had to wait for too long before becoming a regualr player for India, Mankad said he rather used the time to enhance his skills.

"It was a blessing in disguise. I was able to learn a lot as I got a lot of help and guidance from senior players like Paes and Bhupathi and matured as a player," he said.

He tried to play down the fact that he was rather unfortunate in being deprived of wild card at the Chennai Open.

"I was not given a wild card but that was the decision of the organisers. I played in the qualifiers and got in. I want to learn the hard way," said Mankad, who now plans to play in French Open qualifiers and then moves to grass to play Wimbledon qualifying rounds.

Karan Rastogi [Images], the reserve player, sweated it out with Mankad and Amritraj.

He said it was his third sucessive tie as reserve but was "taking it as a learning experience".

The 18-year-old, who trains in Nick Bollettieri Tennis Acadmey in the USA, said, "I have played and won against likes of Maria Sharapova [Images] and Williams sisters during practice at the Acadmey where they too, along with Tommy Haas and Max Mirnyi, have training stints".

Paes was expected to reach here by the evening and Mahesh Bhupathi [Images] would reach on Wednesday.

The Uzbeks, who arrived in Delhi last week, were busy toiling in heat to get accustomed to grass and soaring temperatures.

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