Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[Rajiv]

Thank You Verma/Sameer for the clarification
And due to my ignorance this question came to my mind. Anyway good to know she is in the team representing the Nation

[bujilover]

And there is no need for her to play these weaker matches. For instance, today against Pakistan the tie was already decided before doubles was being played. I think the same thing will happen in our tomorrow's match against Malaysia. Why waste playing Sania when others are getting the job done so easily. I think she will play in the SF and finals.

Today, in the second match Ankita beat Usma Sohail 60 61 and Natasha and Prathana won in doubles 60 64.

Rishika has been posting Fed cup team pictures in FB. None of them shows Sania in it. We will see whether she plays (when it is needed).

[Tolamu]

I saw the dbls rubber vs Pakistan yesterday in DDSports. At the end of the match, Sania was part of the congratulating team in official uniforms. I don't know if she is there as a player/official. Btw it is played in her Academy Court.

[bujilover]

Final tie for the pool standings.

India vs Malaysia

Match 1 : P G Thombare 6-1 6-0 Yus Yusri

Match 2 : Ankita Raina has won the first set 6-1 vs Jawariah Noordin and shockingly lost the second set 3-6

[sameerph]

I saw the dbls rubber vs Pakistan yesterday in DDSports. At the end of the match, Sania was part of the congratulating team in official uniforms. I don't know if she is there as a player/official. Btw it is played in her Academy Court.

Sania is a playing captain and no, it is not played at the her acadamy court but is at SAAP tennis complex where WTA Hyderabad open was played in 2005 where Sania won her 1 and only singles WTA title.

Started watching the match now and Sania is sitting in captain's chair sitting besides Ankita during breaks.

[sameerph]

Final tie for the pool standings.

India vs Malaysia

Match 1 : P G Thombare 6-1 6-0 Yus Yusri

Match 2 : Ankita Raina has won the first set 6-1 vs Jawariah Noordin and shockingly lost the second set 3-6

Ankita manages to scrap thu 6-4 in the third set. But, Noordin really seemed to have more power in her shots than Ankita. Surprised that she is not ranked and it looks like that is only because she hardly plays anywhere.

[sameerph]

We will play Turkemenistan today in the playoff SF. Turkemenistan does not have any ranked players. So, this should be another easy match for us.

If we win today, we will meet the winner of Indonesia and Philippines in the final. I think that is going to be a close match as both have ranked players in their teams. Players from both these teams have players ranked well below India. But, sometimes these ranks can be deceptive particularly in the context of fed cup as we saw yesterday in case of Noordin.

So, final can be a close affair. But lets get thru the SF first today.

[bujilover]

We will play Turkemenistan today in the playoff SF. Turkemenistan does not have any ranked players. So, this should be another easy match for us.

If we win today, we will meet the winner of Indonesia and Philippines in the final. I think that is going to be a close match as both have ranked players in their teams. Players from both these teams have players ranked well below India. But, sometimes these ranks can be deceptive particularly in the context of fed cup as we saw yesterday in case of Noordin.

So, final can be a close affair. But lets get thru the SF first today.

Even though TKM currently doesn't have any ranked players, Anastasiya Prenko used to play regularly in ITF events and especially in Indian ITF tournaments. I guess lack of sponsors and home tournaments make her unranked as is the case with Malaysian and Philippines tennis players.

Prenko was ranked as high as 536 in Singles. She was active till 2011. Then started playing just the Fed cup matches for national duty.

I think her match is going to be very tough. Doubles to be on the safer side we might need a strong team.(assuming Ankita takes care of her singles match).

[sameerph]

Thanks, Dinesh. That is why I said rankings are quite deceptive here because players from some of these nations do not play as much on the tour as our players and are therefore under-ranked. Same happened with Noordin from Malaysia yesterday as she really seemed to be a good player and seemed to have more power in her shots than Ankita.

Also playing for davis/ fed cup evokes different kind of pressure and sometimes rankings go out of window as we have seen so many times in our own case.

Prenko will be playing Ankita, right ?

[bujilover]

I really don't know how the fielding of players occur wrt Fed cup. And in particular , this TKM team doesn't have ranked players either in order for us to predict who will play Singles 1 , Singles 2.

I have checked the previous rubbers of TKM. Prenko plays as #1 which means that Player #2 always play #2 and #1 plays #1.

I thought that in a given day, any player can be fielded by the captain regardless the rankings

[Tolamu]

Since Sania is the playing captain of the Indian team, I guess she will play dbls if tie is 1-1 at the end of the singles rubbers. But I can't see her playing singles whether it is SF or F or world group playoff.

Btw, where is our perpetual guest 'Atithee' nowadays?

[sameerph]

Btw, where is our perpetual guest 'Atithee' nowadays?

He does visit the forum but has decided not post for a while.

Btw, world group play off still some way off. If we win this tournament, we will progress to Asia Oceania group I and will have to win that one to progress to world group playoffs.

[sameerph]

Nice and easy win over Turkmenistan in the SF.

[M1] Prarthana THOMBARE d. Jahana BAYRAMOVA 60 62
[M2] Ankita RAINA d. Anastasiya PRENKO 61 62

We will meet the winner of Indonesia and Philippines. They are tied 1-1 at the moment and doubles match is being played.

[bujilover]

Nothing interesting to post but just for the record.

Prarthana G Thombare def Sara Mansoor 6-1 6-0
Ankita will play Ushna Suhail in S2.

For doubles , Natasha Palha and PGT will play Sara/Ushna.

Wiating for India vs Philippines finals

So this has happened

India plays Philippines tomorrow.

They have Katharina Lehnert who is ranked who is ranked 595 atm and has won an ITF title this year at Sharm El Sheikh.She has in fact played in the February ITF events in India and lost her matches to Nidhi and Dhruthi in 2 respective events. Ankita needs to do her job here.

Second singles player is Anna Patrice Patrimonio. PGT will serve bagels and breadsticks.

Good luck Team India. We deserve to be in Group I. Never lose the status

[bujilover]

PGT won her match 6-3 6-1 against Anna Patrice .

Eagerly waiting for Ankita vs Katharina . I'm sure the match will go 3 sets . Go India !