'I would have preferred playing against Paes,' says Aqeel Khan

In a match that sowed the seeds of dissention in the Indian team, Pakistan's Aqeel Khan thinks he would have always liked to play the fifth rubber against Leander Paes in the Davis Cup Asia Oceania relegation play-off tie in Mumbai in April 2006.

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Captain Paes picked himself ahead of Rohan Bopanna to play the decider on the make-shift grass courts at Brabourne Stadium and scored a heroic 6-4, 7-6(4), 3-6, 0-6, 6-1 win over Khan. Prakash Amritraj was India's No.1 singles player at the time and had lost to Pakistan's top player Aisam Qureshi earlier in the day to push the tie into the final match.

"We knew right from the beginning that if it went into the fifth rubber, Leander would play it," said Khan on Tuesday. "In Davis Cup there is tremendous pressure on the players. But I would have preferred to play Leander, because I thought I had a better chance against him."

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Khan is currently playing the $ 10,000 Futures in Mumbai, his first tour to the city since the Cup tie.

"Of course, coming to Mumbai brings back the memories of the Davis Cup. The atmosphere was completely different at that time.

"Thinking about the match against Leander now, I think I would have done a few things differently. To start with, I would have liked to stretch the fourth set a little bit. He was playing drop shots followed by lobs and I was chasing all the balls; I didn't know at that time that he was tiring me and setting himself up for the fifth set. That's where experience counts, and I gained some myself in the match.

"I should've let the fourth set go little longer once I was 3-0, 4-0 up. By doing that I would've ensured serving first in the fifth set, which was crucial. I made some foot-faults also during the match, which I was upset about. All the calls were coming from only one side, I agrued about that with the umpire too but no one can overrule foot-faults."

Khan, who has forever played bridesmaid to Qureshi's unparalelled success in Pakistan tennis, blew up the biggest chance he had to back as a hero.

He also had two break points on Paes' serve in the first game of the fifth set, but once he wasted those he gave a cramping Paes room to get back into the match. The Indian veteran seized the opportunity and ran through the set 6-1 to win the home tie for India.

The memorable tie against Pakistan took on a controversial turn when Amritraj, Bopanna and Mahesh Bhupathi mentioned it in the list of grievances in the recent revolt against Paes' leadership.

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Amritraj and Bopanna have objected it on two accounts-- first, that Paes opted to play on a "cricket ground" on grass courts, which is Pakistan's favourite playing surface also, when the players would have preferred to play on hard courts and second that the captain played the decider and stole the limelight.

Paes decision to play the fifth rubber against Kazakhstan last year seems to have added credence to the second claim. But to his credit, the captain won both the matches to justify his selection.