Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[arjun2761]

Great performance by our women especially Ankita. Hopefully, they can finish strong here and then carry forward that form onto the tour...

[Omkara]

It's the fed cup where she lost a match to a lower ranked player and had a massive loss in confidence. Hope she gets it back

[sameerph]

India vs. Kazakhstan (5th place play off)

[S1] Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,399) d. Galina VOSKOBOEVA (KAZ,NR) 62 46 62

Good win for Prerna against Galina who is a former top 50 player but seems to be coming back from injury.

[vatsal323]

Having Sania by the side really helping our girls, it seems!

[sameerph]

Yes, seems to be the case.

Ankita Raina just won the first set 76(2) against 83rd ranked Yaroslava Shvedova.

And her opponent retired at that point of time.

[S2] Ankita Raina (IND,307) d. Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 76(2) retd.

India beats Kazakhstan 2-0 and finish fifth in the Asia Oceania group I. Much better than expected.

[jaydeep]

I think this is our best performance in Fed Cup Asia / Oceania Group I ... Congrats to our girls and Zeeshan Ali.

[sameerph]

Not the best ever, Jaydeep. If we go at the start of this thread, with Sania and Shika Uberoi in the team we had finished runner up in group 1. After that for a couple of years too, Sunitha Rao also came into the team and we were among top 4 one more time, I think. But, still a creditable result after a long time thanks mainly to Ankita and Prerna and to coach Zeshan Ali for motivating this team.

Hope by next year Karman and Pranjala too come into contention and we have a strong side.

[jaydeep]

Thanks Sameer for update.

[PKBasu]

Great job indeed by Ankita to beat a bunch of players ranked between 56, 83 and 217. Two top-100 wins! WOW!!

Some fine performances by Prerna, our number 2 singles player, too, in beating a couple of higher-ranked opponents. Very encouraging indeed!

It was clearly a mistake to have played Prarthana ahead of Prerna in the earlier matches.

[vatsal323]

Don't we have a similar thread for Fed Cup? Couldn't find one, so posting it here -

The final team of 4 has been selected -

Sania Mirza
Karman Kaur Thandi
Ankita Raina
Snehdevi Reddy

I don't understand Snehadevi's selection. She has done nothing to justify in the past few months to justify her selection here. Ankita and Karman will most definitely play the singles, leaving Sania to play with either a tired Karman/Ankita, or a not so proficient doubles player in Snehadevi. Prarthana should have been selected. Unless she's injured or something, this selection is extremely stupid.

[sameerph]

I have moved this post to the right thread.

I guess like davis cup they wanted to keep a third singles player in the side instead of playing a double specialist like Prarthna. Moreover, I think Ankita or Karman with Sania would be as good a combination as Sania with Prarthana. So, I think selecting third singles player is a good decision. But, I agree with you on Sneha. She has done hardly anything. They could have selected someone like Riya Bhatia who is ranked higher or go for broke and select the younger ones like Pranjala or Zeel .

[PKBasu]

Yes, Ankita has done much better than Prarthana when they have entered the same doubles tournament, so that aspect of the selection makes sense. But Zeel should have been the fourth member of the side, or perhaps Pranjala.

[sameerph]

Sania has pulled out of the Fed cup team this year. So, Riya Bhatia replaces her in the team. The tournament starts on Wednesday and we are Pool B with China, Japan and Philippines. Pool A consists of Thailand, Kazakhstan and Korea.

Following are nominations of teams in our pool -

China
Ying-Ying Duan
Lin Zhu
Kai-Lin Zhang
Zhaoxuan Yang

Japan
Misaki Doi
Naomi Osaka
Eri Hozumi
Shuko Aoyama

India
Ankita Raina
Karman Kaur Thandi
Snehadevi S Reddy
Riya Bhatia

Philippines
Katharina Lehnert
Anna Clarice Patrimonio
Khim Iglupas
Czarina-Mae Arevalo

Both Japan and China are very strong and it would be a miracle for to beat any of these 2 teams without Sania. Our best chance will be against Philippines who has only 1 ranked player. If we beat him we will avoid relegation and stay in this group which can our best aim this year.

[sameerph]

We play Japan tomorrow in our first match in what could be our toughest match of the group. Japan has 2 singles players ranked 42 and 56. So, it will be tough opening for Ankita and Karman.

[sameerph]

Japan proved too strong for us.

At Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group 1

Japan d. India 3-0

[S2] Naomi OSAKA (JPN,56) d. Karman Kaur THANDI (IND,531) 62 62

[S1] Misaki DOI (JPN,42) d. Ankita RAINA (IND,270) 60 63

[D] Shuko AOYAMA / Eri HOZUMI d. Ankita RAINA / Karman Kaur THANDI 61 63

Another tough one against China tomorrow.