Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[sameerph]

We lost 0-3 against Japan.

[S2] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,477) l. Yuki Naito (JPN,229) 06 46

[S1] Ankita Raina (IND,319) l. Mai Hontama (JPN,129) 46 46

[D] Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND) / Riya Bhatia (IND) l. Shuko Aoyama (JPN) / Ena Shibahara (JPN) 06 46

China beat New Zealand 3-0 and Korea beat Indonesia 3-0.

[sameerph]

We lost to China too 0-3. Ankita and Riya lost in singles and Sowjajya/Rutuja lost doubles.

Up against Indonesia today. Important match to win to avoid relagation this.

[sameerph]

Rutuja easily beats Betrice Gumulya 64 61 and we are up 1-0 against Indonesia.

Ankita up against 350th ranked Aldila Sutjiadi in the second singles now.

[sameerph]

Ankita thrashes Sutjiadi 61 62 for us to go up 2-0 and clinch the tie for us.

One hurdle crossed to avoid relegation. 2 more matches left against Korea and New Zealand. Need to win 1 of them not to finish in bottom 2.

[arjun2761]

Good result for India. Looks like NZ is our best hope to avoid relegation. Korea is playing quite well so will be tougher to beat.

[sameerph]

Rutuja wins 61 76(3) against ivanov of New Zeland to give us 1-0 lead.

[sameerph]

And Ankita easily beats Paige Hourigan 75 63 and we win against New Zeland.

We at least avoid relegation which is good considering that we were missing Sania and Karman this time.

[Atithee]

Glad that we could do so without Sania. I don’t think the end result would have been different and we do need to wean off Sania someday. It’s not too soon right now.

[sameerph]

We beat Korea 2-1 in the last match to clinch the third place behind Japan and China. Korea did field a depleted side resting their top 2 player but good that we took advantage.

Japan and China advance to world group play offs. Hope they win their matches in play offs so that they do not get back to Asia Oceania group which given other teams like us to advance next year.

[suresh]

Beating Korea (without their top players) is a good result. I hope this good performance translates to improved showing on the ITF/WTA circuit in the coming weeks.

[jayakris]

That was a better finish than I expected. Congrats India.

[sameerph]

This year's Asia Oceania qualifying event will be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from April 11 to 15.

China, Japan, India, Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan are 6 teams in the fray. Top 2 teams will be promoted to world group, bottom 2 teams will be relegated to group 2 .

And Vaidehi and Sahaja are selected to the Indian team for the first time. This is an article from Kamesh-

India team for Billie Jean King Cup: New faces make the cut, Shalini replaces Vishal Uppal as captain

[PKBasu]

Shalini Thakur (who never played outside India, and reached a career high of 811 in singles) is the captain?! AITA plumbing new depths! I thought Rohit Rajpal as captain was bad enough, but now this!!

The captain's slot is being totally wasted. It is far from ornamental, as the captain has a key role in motivating players in DC and BJK Cup.

[Dinesh]

Why are they picking Karman while she’s seemingly injured? Do the players not get contacted while the selectors make these decisions?

[sameerph]

Why are they picking Karman while she’s seemingly injured? Do the players not get contacted while the selectors make these decisions?

I think they do contact players before selection. The tournament is more than a month away. So, Karman may be expecting to be fit that time. If not, she can always be replaced later.