Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[jayakris]

Are we really going to trust Ankita in singles when we could field either one of Shrivalli or Sahaja?

I think she can still replace Ankita with Sahaja, because Sahaja is higher ranked than Rutuja.

If Rutuja loses, we probably have to send in Ankita for us to stay alive, hoping for a miracle in that match or in the doubles that follows with Shrivalli and Prarthana. That is because it is quite questionable if Sahaja can do much on clay (and there no point in keeping Ankita for doubles if we may have lost already before that).

If Rutuja wins, I would send in Sahaja because a doubles win by Ankita is more probable than a singles win right now. It won't be because Sahaja has a better chance than Ankita to win at #1, but because getting a win from Ankita is more probable in doubles than in singles.

My guess: Sahaja has only a 25% chance to win #1 singles. Ankita may have a 35% chance. But she probably has at least a 50% chance to win doubles if he has not payed singles (and shrivalli/prarthana may only have a 25% chance to win that). That means, if Rutuja wins, we should hold back Ankita.

[jayakris]

Looks like the games are moved indoors? The link Sameer posted now takes us to an indoor court.

[Dinesh]

Good job by Rutuja to get us the lead, although the 2nd set looked scary with the Kiwi girl trying hard to change the momentum.

Ankita vs Lulu. If this tie goes to the doubles rubber, beating Erin Routliffe is not going to be an easy task.

[jayakris]

What was the score of the Rutu match? I had to step away when she got broken at 62 44 and it looked like she was letting it slip.

EDIT: Okay... 62 76(5)... Wow, nice comeback at the end, Rutuja!!

[jayakris]

Ankita vs Lulu. If this tie goes to the doubles rubber, beating Erin Routliffe is not going to be an easy task.

The mindless idiocy continues. Ankita down 2 breaks at 1-5. Don't we have any brain cells at all? I cannot believe that we have Shalini Thakur as the captain and she does not have the authority (or doesn't want to take authority) to sit Ankita down. Or may be SHE is the one without brain cells. Everybody has known for 3 days in a row that Ankita should not be playing singles (not because she is worse than others in singles, but because we need her for doubles) and we keep trotting her out and we keep trotting her out.

If your #3 has gone 4-0, and your doubles specialist is 4-0, and you still cannot advance, you have only yourself to blame.

Make me eat crow (or my shoe), Ankita, though!

EDIT: At least Ankita did not waste much energy, and only just stood there smacking some balls and doing match practice... Lost 26 06.

[Atithee]

Ankita should have stood herself down. She’s in no position to play singles. What a disgrace. Yes, I’m calling the end result a disgrace, Ankita included. There’s no way to sugarcoat this.

[jayakris]

^^^ There isn't. You cannot candy this up, to use the old Texas phrase. It is a disgrace how Ankita and Shalini have screwed this up. We should be so easily advancing, considering the great form Rutuja and Prarthana are in. Instead, we may not. Let us just pray that Ankita can somehow muster up some energy to save the country, team, her coach and herself. But she has only herself to blame, if she cannot.

[jayakris]

Korea took a singles match in a surprise, and are at 1-1 against China. If they beat China in doubles, they advance even if we win the doubles (on a 3-way tie among CHN, KOR, IND with 4-1 records)

[Atithee]

China may tank their match. The singles win may not be such a surprise.

[arjun2761]

^^^I think one of the Wangs pulled up injured to give Korea the win. We pretty much need to win the doubles against NZ to advance and we are down a set.

[jayakris]

It is all over guys. Ankita has nothing left. Thank you, Ms. Shalini Thakur. I cannot believe Ankita herself would be so foolish and do this to the country. 16 13 in doubles.

China is not tanking. They are shellacking Korea 60 30 in doubles. But Korea will advance thanks to Shalini/Ankita foolishness.

Serves us right, for not speaking up enough against AITA's appointment of useless Davis Cup and BJ Cup captains and coaches. We got such a rare chance to advance to playoffs, with so many breaks and things falling in place perfectly, and look what we did. It was like, "No way. We want to stay in Group 1. Don't you know we are India? How dare you think we are smart?"

[jayakris]

We are not going down that easily... Comeback from 1-5 to 4-5 with 2 breaks and serving. Wow, some spirited tennis suddenly from us. We saved 3 or 4 match pts earlier (which were playoff points for Korea too, as they anxiously wait for us to lose)

At 5-6, we saved 2 more match pts from 15-40 and finally Ankita missed a volley that was there for the taking. 16 57 loss.

We finish 3rd, Korea advances.

If you have any shame, please resign, Ms. Shalini Thakur. Thank you.

(I should have said, "if you have any shame, fire her AITA" but I know that they have no shame. Not an iota. Or they would not have had near-no-names like Shalini Thakur and Rohit Rajpal as our national captains when so many others with much more tennis accomplishments are out there)

Unbelievably frustrating. Wasted a fabulous tournament that Rutuja and Prarthana had. Wasted two young talents Shrivalli and Sahaja. They could have helped immensely by going out and even losing a couple of matches, as it would have given Ankita some rest. But Ankita, I am sure must shoulder responsibility. This was pure hardheadedness by her. Even if the coach asked her to keep playing #1 singles, she should have known not to do that yesterday and today. I am pretty sure that, having seen AR's poor form in singles by day 3, Shalini Thakur would not have forced her to play every day, if AR had talked strategy and suggested resting. Shalini Thakur must take blame for not doing her duty as the captain and forcing her to sit. Not establishing your own authority (whether you deserved it when given authority) is a major failing she has, if she felt that she could not tell Ankita not to play. Between these two, they managed to totally screw up this event.

I am terribly mad. ... I feel horrible to be this unkind to Ankita, the warhorse whom we all love, but she screwed up. No other way to put it. She totally messed up.

If I am this mad, I can only imagine what Sahaja and Shrivalli are feeling, having had to sit around silently and watch this mayhem, unable to do anything to help. I feel bad for them too.

[sameerph]

Yes, unfortunately, Ankita has to take major blame for this loss. Lost matches against Taiwan, Korea and NZ. Matches we she would have won in earlier years. And to coach to keep on playing her in singles and doubles even after that.

Sahaja and Shrivalli were totally wasted.

[jayakris]

Final Standings: Ties (Matches)

China, P.R. -------- 5-0 (13-2)
Korea, Rep. ------- 3-2 (11-4)
India --------------- 3-2 (8-7)
New Zealand ----- 3-2 (7-8)
Chinese Taipei --- 1-4 (5-9)
Pacific Oceania -- 0-5 (0-14)

[gunsnroses]

Vishal Uppal was removed without any prior communication with him. Will they remove Shalini Thakur now ? I guess not!