Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[sameerph]

Oops, Ankita replaced injured Sania i wanted to say.

Ankita Raina has been in the team every year since 2013 which is great. Also talks about her fitness. I do not know if any other Indian has represented India for 10 consecutive years in Davis cup, let alone fed Cup

[arjun2761]

Love it that Korea ended as #2. But from an Indian standpoint, I think it's always better to hope that, if not India, Japan and China go through everytime. When they play the world group play off, only China and Japan, with their best team available ofcourse, have a shot at beating other teams. And that means they've a better shot at making it to world group qualifiers and leaving the space empty for India in the Asia/Oceania Group 2. Only then will India have bigger chance of making it to WG qualifier playoffs every year - otherwise it probably will be playing Asia/Oceania Group 1 just trying not to get relegated to group 2. Next year, we'll be having 2 of Indonesia, Hong Kong or Chinese Taipei in the group 1 with us, which are much stronger and we can't even hope of one easy win like we had against Uzbekistan.

Yes, China has 2 top 30 singles players so would have had the best chance to advance. Japan has 2 top 150 players and Korea has 2 top 200 players, so less chance for them to advance in the next stage.

[prasen9]

The problem with China advancing and not Korea is that it is bad for India if we want to have any chance of going up next year. We will have to be better than China and beat one of the two coming down. If it was Korea who did not advance, next year we would have to beat Korea and one other. Roughly speaking. Our chances are worse now that China is not going up but Korea is because China, with their top players, is much tougher to beat than Korea.

[ornatebrute]

The problem with China advancing and not Korea is that it is bad for India if we want to have any chance of going up next year. We will have to be better than China and beat one of the two coming down. If it was Korea who did not advance, next year we would have to beat Korea and one other. Roughly speaking. Our chances are worse now that China is not going up but Korea is because China, with their top players, is much tougher to beat than Korea.

Yes, Korea very likely won't be winning it's qualifier match this year end and will be back again in the Asia Group I. TBH, despite having top doubles players, without Naomi Osaka in their team (who is currently pregnant), the current Japanese singles players (100-200 ranked rank bracket at best), will mostly not be good enough for any of the European teams in the qualifiers either and will be back in Asia group I too. So we most likely will be with Japan, Korea, China AND 2 from Indonesia/Hong Kong/Taiwan (/Philippines?).

Gonna be very tough next year to even stay in the group for us. Indonesia has Priska Nugroho and Sutjiadi. Taiwan has Chan sisters, Su Wei, good youngsters in singles. HKG has Wing, Chong and Karunaratane. Philippines will have Eala if they decide to participate. Japan, China, Korea were always tough to beat. We are going to have it tough.

[jayakris]

^^^ If we get Karman back, and playing with the form she had in Canada late last year, we will be pretty tough to beat too, though.

[sameerph]

So, this year's Asia Oceania qualifying group 1 is going to be played in Changsha, China, from April 8 to 13 on clay courts. 6 teams in the fray are China, Korea, India, Taiwan, New Zeland and Pacific Oceania. I think staying in this group won't be difficult beating NZ and Pacific Oceania but to move up need to beat Korea and Taiwan ( I think China will be too tough to beat).

And this is our team for this-

Ankita Raina, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Rutuja Bhosale, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Prarthana Thombare. Reserve: Vaidehi Chaudhari.

Captain: Shalini Thakur Chawla; Coach: Radhika Kanitkar; Physio: Ajeeta Goel.

[jayakris]

The ties are about to start, or has just started... Here are the ties today.

China, P.R. vs Chinese Taipei
Xinyu Wang vs J. Garland
Q. Zheng vs Y. Yang
H. Guo / L. Zhu vs H. Chan / E. Liang

Korea, Rep. vs New Zealand
Y. Ku vs V. Ivanov
S. Jang vs L. Sun
S. Jang / S. Park vs P. Hourigan / E. Routliffe

India vs Pacific Oceania
R. Bhosale vs T. Kamoe
A. Raina vs S. Breen
S. Bhamidipaty / P. Thombare vs M. Boosie / R. Coffin

[jayakris]

So, this year's Asia Oceania qualifying group 1 is going to be played in Changsha, China, from April 8 to 13 on clay courts. 6 teams in the fray are China, Korea, India, Taiwan, New Zeland and Pacific Oceania. I think staying in this group won't be difficult beating NZ and Pacific Oceania but to move up need to beat Korea and Taiwan ( I think China will be too tough to beat).

That was true when you said it, but right after that, Lulu Sun (#169 in singles, 323 in doubles) who was born in NZL but grew up in Switzerland, changed her country to NZL just last month. Suddenly NZL is no chicken feed either. This will be a dogfight to avoid relegation.

I hate Lulu Sun ... No I don't... She is a Univ. of Texas Longhorn after all. But I wish she hadn't switched countries. We could have avoided getting nervous.

[jayakris]

By the way, why are we wasting Ankita's energy today against Pacific Oceania??

[jayakris]

Oh there is a live stream... All in Chinese! Huh???

https://wx.vzan.com/live/page/481195777 ... &jumpitd=1

R. Bhosale d. T. Kamoe, 60 60
A. Raina d. S. Breen, 61 63
Doubles to come

[sameerph]

By the way, why are we wasting Ankita's energy today against Pacific Oceania??

True, we need her to be at her usual fighting best in rest of the matches. We should have rested her for today's match.

Interesting that we still choose Rutuja as our #2 player ahead of Sahaja who is ranked higher. I guess due to Rutuja's experience which can matter in crunch matches.

[jayakris]

Shrivalli and Prarthana won the doubles 60 61 too.

[jayakris]

Tuesday scores:

China d. Taiwan 2-1
Xinyu Wang CHN d. J. Garland TPE 7-5 7-6(7-4)
Q. Zheng CHN d. Y. Yang TPE 6-0 6-1
H. Guo / L. Zhu CHN lt H. Chan / E. Liang TPE 3-6 2-6

Korea, Rep. d. New Zealand 3-0
Y. Ku KOR d. V. Ivanov NZL 6-4 6-4
S. Jang KOR d. L. Sun NZL 6-4 6-0
D. Kim / S. Park KOR d. P. Hourigan / E. Routliffe NZL 6-3 1-6 10-7

India d. Pacific Oceania 3-0
R. Bhosale IND d. T. Kamoe POC 6-0 6-0
A. Raina IND d. S. Breen POC 6-1 6-3
S. Bhamidipaty / P. Thombare IND d. M. BOOSIE / R. Coffin POC 6-1 6-1

I think it will be India against China on Wednesday... We will see.

[jayakris]

Check https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/202 ... i.1412899/ for all updates and live stream video links.

[sameerph]

Yes , against China tomorrow. Almost an impossible match with China having 2 top 50 players.

Key matches will be next 3 against NZ, Taiwan and Korea. Need to win all 3 to finish in top 2 for promotion. Win at least 1 out of 3 to avoid relagation.