Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[sameerph]

In the tie against Thailand who are pretty much the top team in this group, Shrivalli upsets 170th ranked Lanlana Tararudee 6-2 6-4 to give us a 1-0 lead.

Can we spring a surprise here ?

[jayakris]

That is a tremendous win for Shrivalli. We almost never beat the Thais who are equally or higher ranked, on the regular tour (Tararudee is much hiher ranked than SRB too)... In BJK, I think we have pulled some surprises against Thais in the past, but this win by Shrivalli is seriously surprising. Great stuff.

But then again, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. The cause of SRB's problems on the tour have almost entirely been between her ears, as she gets into funks of negativity on herself. In a BJK environment with everybody cheering her on, I think she is able to avoid the self-inflicted funks and bouts of self-doubts. Then she is a handful for anybody, with her power game.

Go Shrivalli, Go India!

[jayakris]

Sahaja lost the first set to Mananchaya Sawangkaew (THA,110), dropping serve in the 7th and 9th games... But SY is up a break at 3-2 and serving in the second set, after a break in the 3rd game. 36 42 now.

Broken to 5-5, break to 6-5, broken to 6-6. Tiebreaker.

Some fantastic tennis from Sahaja in the Tiebreaker. Big shots, backhand, net-hugger heat missiles, winners, everything... Well done. It is "match on".

63 76(3) 00... "Chak de... chak de India" playing in the background! Go, go go!!

[sameerph]

Great to see Sahaja come back from a set down there. Probably the first really good set she has played after quite a while. Now, hope she can close it out for us here. It will be huge upset if she can do that but of course Mananchaya is a talented player and is likely to come back stronger in third set.

[jayakris]

Oh well... Sahaja got what appeared to be a cramp at 1-0 in the third and retired. She was not able to even walk, after some 10 minutes of work by the physio. Conceded the match.

So India lost the second match 36 76(3) 10 RET.

Now it is down to the doubles tie.

So sad about Sahaja who was playing some exciting tennis against the world #110 when it all went awry.

[jayakris]

Prarthana and Ankita are up 76(3) 20 on Plipuech and Cheapchandej... Keep the advantage and take the tie, ladies!... 76(3) 31...

Broken back.. 3-3... Now 76(3) 34 and India to serve... Ankita continues to be really off-color. Looks tired, which she shouldn't be, having not played all that much yet. But that is what we see. It is 5 games lost on the trot, and it is an MTB now... 76(3) 36 [0-0]

After a toilet break, Ankita came back all charged up. All over the place in the tiebreaker. They ran up an 8-1 score, gave a couple of points on Thai serve to 8-3, then a great Prarthana serve up the T in Australian formation followed by an Ankita crosscourt gave us the match point. 9-3... Another nice serve and a sharp kill at the net by Ankita. Job done!! 76(3) 36 [10-3]

India d. Thailand, 2-1

That was rather unexpected, considering our players' record against the Thais on the tour. Despite having a #110 and #168 player playing singles for them, and our #1 retiring in her match, we still pull off the upset. This is what we wanted to see at home. GO INDIA!!!

[sameerph]

Yes, excellent upset win by us. Thailand is the last of the teams which I expected us to beat. Great start given by Shrivalli with second best win of her career set us on the path to win today.

NZ with 2 wins, India, Thailand, Korea, HKG with 1 win each, Taiwan 0 wins- it is all wide open.

[arjun2761]

Important win for India. I think NZ, India, S Korea, and Thailand are the set from where the 2 qualifiers will come from. NZ is in the best position but India is still in with a good chance at this stage of the competition.

[PKBasu]

Very nice indeed to see us pull off a huge upset of Thailand. Kudos to Shrivalli for a huge win in the second singles (although it was played first), Sahaja for taking a set off world #110, and for the pair of Ankita Raina/Prarthana Thombare for pulling off a solid doubles win a dominant 10-3 score in the MTB. Nice to see us finally take full advantage of the home courts and crowd.

[sameerph]

Today it is Vaidehi Chaudhari playing instead of Sahaja .Sahaja only had cramps yesterday and not any injury and was fit but has apparently been rested.

Vaidehi started well with a 76(8) 61 win over Hongkong #2 to give us a 1-0 lead.

[Add-on: It was #757 Hong Ching Wu who played #2 for HKG. Mod, Jay]

[jayakris]

A very close match between Shrivalli and Codi. SRB was down 0-2 but came back with an 8th game break for 4-4. In the tiebreak, SRB was down 3-5 but won 4 of the next 5 points and took it. India leads 76(6) 00.

Srivalli played a sequence of unfocused shots and got unlucky (again) on a netcord on her serve too in the 4th game. 76(6) 14 and serving. HK throwin the kitchen sink at Shrivalli and not allowing her yo get into a rhythm of pummelin shots. Drop shots and underarm serves from Codi. SRB unable to hit cleanly and started making errors too. To add to the trouble, yet another netcord at 2-5 set pt... Lost the set. All even at 76(6) 26 00

SRB went up a break to 3-1 in the third and another break to 5-2 and serving for the match. Got broken after a deuce. 5-3. And Shrivalli breaks Codi to take the match and the tie for us, 76(6) 26 63!!

India d. Hong Kong, 2-0

Need to win the doubles match also. "Matches won, Sets won, Games won" are all used if there is a tie for the top two spots. We are at 5-3 on matches, 11-7 on sets, 88-86 on games, so far.

[PKBasu]

Surprising close match for Shrivalli against a player ranked almost the same as the other HK player, who Vaidehi thrashed. The latter is our in-form player at the moment, and I'm glad she got to play a live match today.

We will hopefully secure the doubles point quite comfortably.

[jayakris]

^^^ No, PKB, it was a lower ranked #757 Hong Ching Wu who played Vaidehi (I just added that bit to Sameer's post above, as Sameer was on a flight after the first match). In fact, Vaidehi should have won at #2 more easily.

Codi Wang at #1 is a topnotch player with great mobility and superb defense, as she showed. This was a tough match for SRB. I am glad the crowd got SRB back into the match after the second set. On the pro tour, SRB would have lost this match without a doubt, getting down on herself after getting broken twice in the second set.

[jayakris]

Prarthana and Ankita lost the doubles point, rather unnecessarily. To be fair, the Hong Kong ladies, Eudice Chong and Hong Yi Cody Wang, played very well, but the Indian pair was more capable than they showed in the match, where they (especially Ankita) seemed to make a lot more errors than they normally would. They were up 5-2, only to lose serve twice, and miss 40-40 set points at 5-3 and 6-5 ... Our pair played well in the first set tiebreaker. The second set was all the island ladies. In the match tiebreaker, we were down a mini at 6-8, and then fought off match points at 8-9, 9-10, 10-11, before falling at 11-13... So, a 76(2) 36 [11-13] loss for us.

The doubles loss, which I believe goes as a 1-2 loss in sets and 11-13 in games, messes up our numbers if there are tiebreakers used for the standings in the end. Oh well...

So, India d. Hong Kong, 2-1 ...

I think we are currently in the third spot in the standings.

NZL at 3-0
THA at 2-1 (6-3 in matches)
IND at 2-1 (5-4 in matches)
KOR at 1-2 (5-4 in matches)
HKG at 1-2 (3-6 in matches)
TPE at 0-3

We play Taiwan next, on Friday. KOR vs HKG and NZL vs THA, next.

[thebestone]

Sahaja's match was so close before the cramp, and then Shrivalli pulled through in that tough three-setter. Disappointing doubles result, but we're still in the hunt. Hoping for a strong performance against Taiwan. Keep fighting!