Captain Shalini Thakur Chawla, proper, with Ankita Raina through the latest Billie Jean King Cup ladies’s tennis occasion in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

After a shiny begin, when it beat Thailand and Uzbekistan, the Indian crew couldn't discover its well past China and Japan within the Billie Jean King Cup ladies’s tennis occasion in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It needed to keep content material within the Asia-Oceania group-1.

“After qualifying to group-1 in 2015, the girls have done a tremendous job over the years to sustain the level and stay in the top group. We did make it to the World Group play-off two years ago”, noticed the captain of the crew, Shalini Thakur Chawla.

There was not a lot at stake within the final tie towards Korea, within the round-robin format, however India held the fortunes of groups each for qualification and relegation.

Shalini recommended Ankita Raina and the crew for placing up a top quality efficiency and competing exhausting towards robust opponents.

“On the last day, we were safe. But it was not the case for Korea. A win would put them in World Group play-off and a loss against us could mean relegation”, identified Shalini, on the drama of the final day.

China had underestimated Korea and had rested its foremost gamers Xinyu Wang and Yue Yuan for singles, and paid for it. Dayeon Back and Kim Dabin received the singles matches for Korea towards China. As luck would have it, Korea misplaced to Thailand. After being tied with similar variety of wins, Korea bought previous China, by advantage of getting crushed it.

“On the last day, it rained all morning. There was only one indoor court, and we played Korea on that. We decided to rest Ankita who had played her heart out in all the matches and give Vaidehi Chaudhari a chance. Vaidehi did well to fight back from 0-5 to 4-5 in the third set. Rutuja Bhosale made it 1-1, and we couldn’t pull it off in doubles”, mentioned Shalni.

Japan was too robust for all of the groups and dropped just one match out of 14.

“Against Moyuka Uchijima, Ankita was 3-1 in the third set and had a point for 4-1”, recalled the captain, as she praised Ankita for her ardour to combat her greatest for the nation for ten years.

“Our players are up there and match opponents stroke for stroke. They need a little more belief and consistency in the quality of the game. The top players don’t give an inch away on the crucial points. They play solid and stick to the basics”, mentioned Shalini.