New Delhi: At 41, Mats Wilander’s waistline remains the same it was 23 years ago when he won the French Open to become the youngest Grand Slam champion then.

But if it is his physical fitness that strikes you from a distance, it is the razor sharp brain that dazzles up close. And it doesn’t take long to admire the lanky Swede’s clarity of thought.

“If I thought bad court with an advantage will suit me, I will put a bad court,” said the former world No. 1, with eight Grand Slam crowns, on the question of ethics versus home advantage.

“Yes, we have a responsibility to the crowd who come to watch, but we are playing to win the Davis Cup, not for the public.”

The seven-time champions have a 4-0 record over India, but they have not been able to reproduce the success of their teams of 1990s.

And against Leander Paes and Co., on a slow, low bouncing grass, it is going to be a tricky tie. Defeat would relegate them to the zonal levels, and Wilander is aware of this danger.

“Once you go to the second division, it is not going to be a walk in the park to get back to the World Group, so definitely we want to win this tie. In a way, this is one of the most important (ties) in the last seven years,” Wilander said.

Wilander was the first men’s player, and the only one before Roger Federer, to own three Grand Slams in a year, which he achieved in 1988.

The Swedish champion, however, rated Federer a better player than Pete Sampras.

“Federer has definitely taken the game forward. You can’t the say the same with Pete Sampras. With Pete, if you served well, you had a chance. But not with Federer, given his style of play.”

“Sweden is a small country, we have lot of good players but we need the Davis Cup... In Sweden, it is the Davis Cup that is shown on TV. And for the unranked player, to have the attention of the whole nation, it feels like playing in a Grand Slam,” he remarked.