Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[Rajiv]

So we just need Ankita to think she is playing Fed Cup when she is on tour. Great couple of wins which should give her confidence.

Davis/ Fed Cup and Tour play are two different facets of Tennis.
As we have seen , Vijay/ LP could take on and beat the world best in DC , but when it came to Tournament play it was a different story.

[PKBasu]

Fantastic pair of wins by Ankita. Clearly shows that she would benefit from being able to have a travelling coach. He loneliness on tour doesn’t suit her.

Very disappointing show from the doubles pair though.

[Observer]

Still very much our best player. Amazing wins by Ankita!

[Omkara]

Ankita's statement post her win

Ankita' s reply. My observation on her was similar to that of somdev. She had plateaued. But noteworthy performance here.

From her picks it is clear that she has worked hard on her fitness.

[bujilover]

Karman finally wins a match. Defeats #761 Eudice Chong 6-3 6-4. India 1 - HKG 0. Change of doubles tie this time with Ankita partnering Pranjala. I think we should give Ankita a rest if she wins her singles match against Ling Zhang for the relegation play-offs.

In fact, even Karman/Pranjala have played together before.

[sameerph]

And why not Prarthana ? She is here as a doubles specialist and should be playing all the doubles matches.

Hope Ankita will seal the tie in the next match but Ling Zhang is a fed cup veteran. So, it may not be as easy for Ankita as it looks.

[meyyis]

Ankita easily defeats Ling Zhang in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.

[meyyis]

India did the right thing by resting Ankita Raina from the doubles match. Prarthana and Pranjala combined and romped home in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 against Kwan Yau Ng and Ho Ching Wu. There was a slight wobble in the second set where they lost serve for consecutive games, but proved to be stronger and managed to break their opponents thrice as well.

By finishing third in Pool-A, India will now face the fourth placed team in Pool-B, which is Chinese Taipei. Similarly Hong Kong faces Thailand in the other tie. The losers of these two ties will be relegated to Asia Oceania Group II in 2019.

Kazakhstan will face Japan to determine which nation will advance to the World Group II play-offs in April 2018.

[arjun2761]

That is a decent win for India against HKG. Very useful as well as Chinese Taipei is a far easier opponent than Thailand who have a top 100 player (Luksika Khumkum) in their ranks...

[meyyis]

Against Chinese Taipei, Karman opens with a win in the first singles.

[S1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,284) d. Pei-Chi Lee (TPE,454) : 7-6, 6-3

In the second singles, Ankita takes on

[S2] Ankita Raina (IND,253) vs. Chieh-Yu Hsu (TPE,377)

[sameerph]

Karnan starts with a win against Chinese Taipei.

[S1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,284) d. Pei-Chi Lee (TPE,454) 76(4) 63

So, good recovery by Karman after losing the first 2 matches tamely against much higher ranked players. Upto Ankita now to close it out for us.

[meyyis]

In an high percentage error strewn match, Ankita finally prevails in 2 hrs and 56 mins - 6-4, 5-7, 6-1, keeping India stay in this Group for the next year.

Both players had difficulties in holding their serves and the match was littered with loads of break points and service breaks every other game.

[S2] Ankita Raina (IND,253) bt Chieh-Yu Hsu (TPE,377) 64 57 61

[jaydeep]

A great Fed Cup week for Ankita, with all four singles matches win (in that two top-notch wins) and lost in couple of doubles matches ... Today, she must be tired considering this was her sixth match in four days.

[jayakris]

Ankita! Ankita!... Great job by her this week

[sameerph]

Good job by our girls to stay in this group by beating Hongkong and Taiwan in the last 2 matches.

Japan beats Kazakhstan to win the title here and move to world group playoff.

Karan Rastogi led Hongkong lost to Thailand and got relegated to group II along with Taiwan.

The 2 teams that got promoted from group II to group I are Indonesia and Pacific Oceania. A bit surprising to see these 2 teams getting promoted but they did beat teams like Uzbekistan and New Zealand in group II. That is fed cup.