Leander Paes embraces Harsh Mankad after the latter defeated Sun Peng of China in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania first-round match in New Delhi on Friday. (AFP)

New Delhi: The smile on his face said it all.

Leander Paes spent a whole day in the captain?s chair at the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania group I first-round clash against China, motivating his teammates to give off their best and though rain did not let the second singles be completed on Friday, Paes had ample reason to be pleased that his decision to field Harsh Mankad had paid off.

?There is a lot of tennis left to be played but we are in the driver?s seat,? he said after it was clear that no further play could be possible because of rain interruption in the second set of Prakash Amritraj?s match against Wang Yu Jr.

?I am happy that Harsh did a fantastic job of it by giving us the lead with a demonstration of solid and mature tennis.?

Mankad, 25, fresh off a victory in a Satellite Masters in England, was delighted with his straight-set win over Sun Peng. ?It was great to have Leander in the chair today. He kept telling me not to ease the pressure. The court was slippery to begin with but Leander had already told me how to cope with it,? he said.

In Amritraj?s case, Paes did not merely stop with offering advice on how to adjust to the grasscourt but went ahead and gave the younger player his own grasscourt shoes. ?I have let him wear them, not step into my shoes,? Paes told The Telegraph when asked if he had let the youngster step into his shoes.

The captain was happy that his singles players were both in good touch and brought that into play. ?Harsh and Prakash are perhaps at the same level now, though Prakash can be explosive when he gets his game going. He produces winners while Harsh works on winning points,? he said.

Paes was also confident that the rain interruptions would not bother the home team. ?I will plan the time I spend in the captain?s chair depending on how the unfinished second singles goes on the morrow. It would have been nice to have got that out of the way today but there is little we can do about it now,? he said.