Billie Jean King Cup (previously Fed Cup) - India

[suresh]

It was nice of Sania to host Ankita in Dubai. I think this will help Ankita in the future. Also, her dad Imran has been going and supporting Indian players during their matches. What a great family!

[sameerph]

Entire Indian team has assemebled in Latvia 2-3 days back as Sania-Ankita came from Dubai, Karman from Germany and others from India.

This is the latest-

Billie Jean King Cup: Latvia rolls out slow, low indoor hard courts for India

It looks slow indoor courts but stll better than clay.

[sameerph]

Draw is out for tomorrow's match-

On day 1-

[M1] Ankita Raina(India,174) vs Jelena Ostapenko(Latvia,51)
[M2] Karman Thandi(India,621) vs Anastasija Sevastova(Latvia,47)

Then, reverse singles on Saturday and doubles at the end.

A bit surprising that at Fed cup the doubles are played last. It should have been third match like davis cup. Our best chance lies in doubles with Sania and Ankita and that will become relevent only when we win 2 singles matches before that.

Can our girls pull off such big upset.

Whatever the results, exciting to see Indian women playing a world group level tie for the first time. Match will be live on Eurosport in India at 8.15 pm India time tomorrow.

[vparam]

Can anyone provide a link to watch here in the US? Thanks!

[Rajiv]

Arg.. Ankita gets broken at 53 when about to serve for S2 and level at 1 set all.
in S2, our girl has totally silenced the Latvian who until then was all screaming after winning each point

[sameerph]

Missed a set point at 5-4, ad-in when Ostapenko served big. Nothing much Ankita could do there. From 5-2 to 5-5 after losing the first set 2-6.

Now, Ankita holds for 6-5.

And she breaks Ostapenko at 15 to take the second setr 7-5.

Ankita is fighting.

[Rajiv]

yes, Ankita takes S2 @5

Come on India!!, Come on Ankita!!

[sameerph]

From 0-2 and an early break down, Ankita has taken 3 straight games to lead 3-2 on serve in third set. Saved 3 breakpoints to hold from 0-40 down. Also saved a breakpoint in earlier game I think.

Couple of holds and Ankita leads 4-3 on serve.

Ankita leads 5-4. Can she break here ?

Ostapenko stays strong to hold at 15 for 5-5.

[Rajiv]

Fantastic stretch return at 40 love to take the score to 54.
Can she break her opponent and create a sensation.

[Rajiv]

Quite heartening to hear Ankita scream "Chaal .. Chaal.." after winning a point instead of customary "Come on..."

[sameerph]

Couple of super games by Ostapenko to break Ankita for 6-5.

And she holds at 30 to take the match.

[M1] Ankita Raina(India,174) l. Jelena Ostapenko(Latvia,51) 26 75 57

She came so close but Ostapenko was so good in last 3 games.

[Rajiv]

Close but no cigar..

would have been a part of Indian folklore had she got better of former world #5.

But to her credit fought valiantly till the end, at pressure points of love 30 ,15-40 in the deciding game ,came up with well timed power returns to reduce the deficit, but sadly in the end it wasn't enough.

Well played Ankita

[Sanjay]

Too bad, she choked.

[sameerph]

Too bad, she choked.

No. Not at all. It is not as if she was so much ahead or anything. Ostapenko was so good in the last 3 games. After all she is a former French open champion and she showed that quality there.

[arjun2761]

Kudos to Ankita for putting up a great fight! She gave her best and that is all we can expect. Inspired by wearing national colors, players often play a lot better than their rankings and Ankita did that today. Note that Ostapenko is someone who also always plays hard in national colors (she beat Kenin and played a close match with Serena last year when playing the US) so this wasn't a case of an opponent not bringing her best...