Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[bujilover]

Ankita lost second set 5-7 after sealing 6-2 in first set.

Interesting match

[sameerph]

This match is really going down to wire now.Ankita was up 5-3 and had a matchpoint at 30-40 on Lenhert serve which she could not convert and now she is 5-6 down with Lenhert serving for the match.

Ankita has 2 breakpoints at 15-40 but Lenhert saves both.Ace and matchpoint for Lenhert , Ankita saves with a great winner, deuce,BP, missed deuce again , ad-out match point and this time Lenhert takes it.

4 straight games lost by Ankita to lose in 2 hours 45 mins match.

[bujilover]

I knew this coming . Katharina #worship

[bujilover]

So Sania and PGT are here to save India.

[sameerph]

Yes, the flips side is Sania gets to play a live match and hope she saves it for us.

[sameerph]

In doubles, we were 0-3 down early but are back to 3-3 now.

[sameerph]

And we take first set 6-3.

[sameerph]

We win 63 63 to win this tournament and qualify for group I next year.

[Sin Hombre]

Ankita is mentally weak

[sameerph]

I would not say so based on just one match. I do not remember too many other match on pro tour where she has choked this way. Fed/ davis cup can be funny and rankings are not always relevant.Overall, Ankita is by far our best player and has very good ground stokes on both flanks. She needs to improve a lot on serve though if she needs to further up the rankings.

Prarthana too has very good technique and good variety in shots but power in her shots is too low for her to be able to beat top 300 levels consistently.

Btw, Japan lost a close match to Belarus in world group II playoffs. That means they come back to Asia Oceania group I next year.

So, following are nations which will compete with us next year in group I-

Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Korea and Taiwan.

Japan, China and Kazakhstan have 2 top 100 players and are far ahead with us. We will have to compete with other 4 to try and stay within group I for now.
Even Uzbekistan and Taiwan have 2 top 200 players, Thailand has 1 and Korea has 2 players in top 300.

We seriously need Ankita and someone else to make a big push towards top 200 next year. Else, I find it very difficult to survive in this group and not get relegated again next year.

[arjun2761]

Perhaps Sania may play singles at this level of competition.

[Sin Hombre]

We have to wait for the generation of Snehadevi and Pranjala to break into the top 200.

[sameerph]

Competition at Asian level is certainly more in women than men. So, we need to have 2 top 200 singles players and/ or 1 more top 50 doubles player to partner Sania to consistently stay in group 1 of Asia oceania event.

To entertain any hopes of going to world group, we need to have 2 top 100 players.

22 year old Ankita Raina is our best hope for top 200 in near future but our second best player is ranked outside top 500.

As Sinhombre said our best hopes are from next generation, 19 year old Rutuja Bhosale who is doing well in college tennis, 18 year olds Dhruti Venugopal and Snehadevi Reddy who have shown some encouraging results of late, 17 year old Karman Kaur Thandi who seems to have the big game and the physique required to succeed and 16 year old Pranjala Yadalapalli who has best results in juniors than any other Indian since Sania Mirza.

I would have put 20 year olds Kanika Vaidya and Ratnika Batra to in the above group. But, they have not played any pro tennis in last 1 year and have regressed in college tennis in last 6 months. Not sure if they still have pro tennis anbitions.

We certainly seems to have some hopes there in young group. Things have certainly changed from the desperate situation 3 years back with Ankita making a big run up the ranks in last 2 years. But, now need more to emerge from the next pack.

[sameerph]

Quite a big jump for us in the Fed cup nations rankings. Now, we are upto #39 from # 68 before last week's tournament. We are 7th among Asian nations which is probably a fair reflection of where we should be based on our current strength.

[sameerph]

Our Fed cup team for 2016 is as follows -

Sania Mirza (captain), Ankita Raina, Prerna Bhambri, Prarthana Thombare.

Reserve: Karman Kaur Thandi.

Coach: Zeeshan Ali.

The ties for Asia Oceania Group 1 where we will be competing will be held at Hua Hin, Thailand from February 3 to 5. The other teams are Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Korea and Taiwan.

It is going to be very tough for Ankita and Prerna to win singles matches against stronger players from these nations. Will Sania step up to play singles to help up at least stay in this group ?