Vishnu Vardhan was supposed to be the chief guest at a school's annual day function in Hyderabad on Thursday morning. He certainly wasn't expected to be in Pune. His visage doesn't feature on the billboards advertising the Davis Cup tie between India and New Zealand outside the tennis stadium in Pune's Balewadi Sports complex. At Thursday's draw ceremony, his name, hastily printed on paper, joined others printed a few days before on more sturdy plastic on the draw board.
Vishnu will partner the 43-year-old Leander Paes against the pair of Michael Venus and Artem Sitak, with Paes looking to win a record 43rd Davis Cup doubles match. He is currently level with Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli, both of whom have a win-loss record of 42-12 in Davis Cup doubles.
Vishnu might be part of history. But it is entirely coincidental. The 29-year-old is here because Saketh Myneni, who was originally supposed to play the tie, (and whose face does adorn a now obsolete billboard) aggravated an old foot injury on Wednesday. He is also here because Rohan Bopanna, the highest ranked male doubles player in the country at world No. 28, isn't.
"Did I want him (Bopanna)? Yes," said non-playing captain Anand Amritraj, who is featuring in his final tie as well. "Three people spoke to him."
Paes says he would have made a call as well but was apparently dissuaded.
It was then that a call was made to Vishnu. It was coincidental that he was still in Hyderabad. "I was supposed to be playing a tournament in Kazakhstan, but I applied for my visa a day late," said Vishnu, who last played at the Chennai Open in January this year.
The first call he got was from Paes himself. "He asked me how I was feeling and whether I was ready to step up". He had got the same call five years ago when Paes was looking for a partner for the men's doubles event at the London Olympics. Vishnu had said 'yes' then and it was the same answer on Wednesday night, too.
Subsequent calls were made by team coach Zeeshan Ali as he tried to arrange Vishnu's flight to Pune. A 6am flight was arranged. "I got a bit of sleep on the plane," said a bleary-eyed Vishnu on Wednesday morning. A few hours of rest later, he was training on the hard court once again.
The doubles tie will be only the fourth of Vishnu's Davis Cup career and his first alongside Paes. Back in 2011, he was beaten in straight sets by Kei Nishikori as India lost to Japan in a World Group Playoff. A year later he was on the winning side, winning both his singles and doubles matches against New Zealand in Chandigarh.
New Zealand's Michael Venus will reprise his role in the doubles from four years back. Currently ranked 36 in the world, Venus will partner Artem Sitak.
Vishnu, though, isn't particularly nervous. "When I played doubles last time around, I was a lot more nervous because we had no senior players. At that time, I used the experience I had, having played with Leander at the London Olympics, against New Zealand. This time I have Leander himself as my partner," he says.
Despite his partner's confidence, Paes himself admits the challenge will be a difficult one. "Luckily we have four singles ties as well," he says. Yuki Bhambri (368) and Ramkumar Ramanathan (276) will be expected to pick up wins against the lower ranked Finn Tearney (414) and Jose Statham (417) on Friday.
While Bhambri was ready to shoulder the doubles responsibility as well, Paes is probably glad to partner Vishnu. "It's really hard for someone to come on such short notice. To pick up his racquet and get ready when the stakes are so high," he says.
"It has never happened before. And in a career that's nearly three decades old that's unusual. It has been 27 years of the Davis Cup but I guess there's always a first time for everything."