Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[sameerph]

Karman lost the first set 4-6. But, she fought like Ankita did.

[sameerph]

She fell away in second set. Lost 4-6 0-6.

[sameerph]

This is the report on yesterday's matches-

Plucky disruptor Ankita Raina almost pulls off upset against Jelena Ostapenko

Ostapenko was arrogant in her post match interview-

"I'm happy to win despite not playing my best. I knew she couldn't play well for the whole match. She (Ankita) has a bit of an ugly game...she plays on ITF level and we are on the WTA," Ostapenko said after the match.

That is bad.

Today Ankita plays Sevastova first up at 4.30 pm India time. Lets see if she can keep our challenge alive.

[Dinesh]

This is the report on yesterday's matches-

Ostapenko was arrogant in her post match interview-

"I'm happy to win despite not playing my best. I knew she couldn't play well for the whole match. She (Ankita) has a bit of an ugly game...she plays on ITF level and we are on the WTA," Ostapenko said after the match.

That is bad.

Perhaps she is a poor English communicator.

[sameerph]

Ankita getting outplayed by Sevastova today. Lost the first set 0-6. Ankita making a lot more errors than yesterday and Sevastova playing at her best.

[sameerph]

In second set, Ankita leads 5-2.

Oh, she had 2 set points at 40-15 but Sevastova played well to come back and hold for 3-5.

And Ankita gets broken and it is back on serve with Sevastova serving at 4-5.

[Sanjay]

This is the report on yesterday's matches-

Plucky disruptor Ankita Raina almost pulls off upset against Jelena Ostapenko

Ostapenko was arrogant in her post match interview-

"I'm happy to win despite not playing my best. I knew she couldn't play well for the whole match. She (Ankita) has a bit of an ugly game...she plays on ITF level and we are on the WTA," Ostapenko said after the match.

That is bad.

Today Ankita plays Sevastova first up at 4.30 pm India time. Lets see if she can keep our challenge alive.

It does sound arrogant, but she actually may be right.
Ostapenko is a FO winner and was ranked No 5 at one time. She has reached the top. Ankita is far away from there and is not broken the top 100 ever.

[sameerph]

Sevastova went up 6-5 and had a match points at 40-30 but Ankita breaks back to take the second set to tie break.

Sevastova win the tie break 7-4.

All over for us.

[suresh]

Ostapenko has no grace and her statement reflects an utter lack of class.

[sameerph]

"I'm happy to win despite not playing my best. I knew she couldn't play well for the whole match. She (Ankita) has a bit of an ugly game...she plays on ITF level and we are on the WTA," Ostapenko said after the match.

That is bad.

It does sound arrogant, but she actually may be right.
Ostapenko is a FO winner and was ranked No 5 at one time. She has reached the top. Ankita is far away from there and is not broken the top 100 ever.

It may be a right thing but the way in which she said it ( she plays an ugly game and she is only an ITF player) was really demeaning to Ankita.

[Omkara]

Ostapenko has no grace and her statement reflects an utter lack of class.

She is one of many one off GS winners in women's tennis. Players who never do anything ever since. I think she is just frustrated with her life. And the event of losing to a nobody (as per her, not me), scared her. So she passed this event as one of her bad days and she would have won otherwise too, as she plays WTA and Ankita in ITF.

[arjun2761]

Ostapenko has no grace and her statement reflects an utter lack of class.

Fully agree. I think she was being honest because she threw her racket on her bag after the match as if she had lost the match.

However, in reality, Ankita played hard and Ostapenko had to play pretty well to win. A lot of her "errors" were really forced errors because Ankita was getting a lot of balls back and making her hit the extra shots that were drawing the errors.

[jai_in_canada]

Dear Ms. Ostapenko:

Congratulations on your hard fought win for your country.
Your dedication to representing your country is commendable. Please know, however, that the only thing more annoying than a sore loser is a sore winner. Making excuses for losing is bad form, but making excuses for winning is a worse look.

Here is a possible way that you can speak next time after a hard fought match. Go ahead and plagiarize it by all means.

"It was a tight match, credit to my opponent for competing well, I am happy that I managed to win, hopefully I can play better in the next match as I know I can."

How would that have been, Ms. Ostapenko? Wouldn't have killed you, I don't think. In fact, I am sure it would have garnered some admiration and respect from all quarters.

Best wishes for progressing beyond being a one slam wonder and a sore loser... sorry winner.

Best regards

JIC

[sameerph]

Btw, in the dead rubber doubles match which was played, Rutuja and Zeel beat the Latvian pair to at least win a point for us to salvage something.

In the meantime, both China and Japan went into these playoff ties with players ranked outside their top 5 and lost. So, they will back to Asia Oceania group 1 like us.

So, it will be tough for us next year to finish in top 2 and qualfiy for play offs like we did last year.

[PKBasu]

Great effort by Ankita in both her matches -- albeit only in the second set against Sevastova. She really have Jelena Ostapenko a fright, and caused the former FO champion to behave boorishly in the press conference afterwards. I'd love to see Ankita play her again -- at Wimbledon perhaps -- and give her a lesson in tennis.