Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[simplyishan]

Broken twice and trailing 0/3 !
Down 1/4 !! Doubles world num#1 has not yet held her serve

[simplyishan]

Prathana holds her serve. Still a break down 3/4!!
SM/PT breaks opponents serve at love.. 4/4!!!

Lost Set-1 by 5/7

[sameerph]

It seems like Sania was not expecting Ankita to win and to play this match which is no excuse. But, it was very bad start by them. Now, back to 4-4 from 1-4.

Welcome to the forum, simplyishan. How do you know which of the doubles partner is serving based on scorecard ?

[simplyishan]

It seems like Sania was not expecting Ankita to win and to play this match which is no excuse. But, it was very bad start by them. Now, back to 4-4 from 1-4.

Welcome to the forum, simplyishan. How do you know which of the doubles partner is serving based on scorecard ?

Hi Smeerph,
Thanks. FYI i am an old user of this forum . I was unable to access my account for last couple of years. So finally created a new account.

At the moment Sania is so confident that obviously she will serve first . Anyways Sania finally holds and we are up 5/4!!

[sameerph]

Ok, thanks Ishan. Welcome back.

So, Sania serving first is your assumption. I really hope this pair does not allow Ankita's big upset win to go waste.

[sameerph]

We lose the first set 5-7. Need a big comeback from our pair.

[Saniapower]

not playing karman in the doubles was a big mistake.

[simplyishan]

not playing karman in the doubles was a big mistake.

Kamran's big serves would have made it easy to hold serves.

[sameerph]

Sania's serve is also pretty good especially for doubles. I am surprised that she is getting broken so many times in this match against the Japanese. Our girl's serve has been broken on 6 out of 8 occasions so far in this match.

Down a break 1-2 in second set .

[simplyishan]

broken again. Match is slipping away now. 5/7 1/4!!

[sameerph]

It is all over. Our pair lost the second set 3-6. Just checked and both the Japanase are ranked in top 100 in doubles. So, a pretty decent doubles combination and it seems Prarthana may not have been able to measure up to their level. She is ranked only 260 in doubles.

[sameerph]

Full results -

India l. (1) Japan 1-2

[S1] Prarthna Thombre (IND,523) l. Eri Hosumi (JPN,206) 26 16

[S2] Ankita Raina (IND,307) d. Nao Hibino (JPN,56) 63 61

[D] Sania MIRZA / Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) l. Shuko AOYAMA / Eri HOZUMI (JPN) 57 36

We will meet Uzbekistan tomorrow in last group match.

[prashanthm]

[D] Sania MIRZA / Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) l. Shuko AOYAMA / Eri HOZUMI (JPN) 57 36

For a minute there, I thought India won the doubles.........
No excuse for losing the doubles....

Wonderful win for Ankita though....

[sameerph]

Opps, wrong colour code for our doubles match. Changed it now. Sad that Sania could not give us a win in doubles after Ankita's superb win.

Thailand beat Uzbekistan 3-0 in the other match in our group now.

I am not sure about exact rules to break the tie if two teams finish with same points ( this will be the case if we beat Uzbekistan). Our first task would be to beat Uzbekistan and then hope that rules work in favour to finish ahead of them. To achieve that, Sania must play at no. 2 singles. We have been getting beaten badly at no. 2 singles.

[arjun2761]

That's a great win by Ankita against #56 Hibino. Easily the best win of her career. Disappointed that Sania wasn't able to pull out the doubles.

Agree that our best bet for the final match would be for Sania to play singles and doubles. We should also include Karman in our team going forward as she is likely to be a stronger partner for Sania than anyone else and she might well be our #2 singles player as well.