New Delhi: India will head into the Billie Jean King Cup (Asia/Oceania Group 1) women’s team tennis competition starting at the DLTA courts here on Tuesday without Shrivalli Bhamidipati, who played a stellar role in taking the team to the playoffs last season.
Shrivalli, who was training here with the India team, withdrew due to a back spasm. In Pune last year, Shrivalli came out with guns blazing, winning all her five singles matches and slaying higher-ranked opponents. It set the stage for India to progress to the playoffs for only the second time in the history of the tournament, which was earlier called the Fed Cup.
There was another injury setback as reserve player Vaidehee Chaudhary too was ruled out with an ankle problem. Zeel Desai was drafted into the team at the last minute. Zeel, who was competing in an ITF W15 event in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, was quick to answer the call. The 27-year-old gave a walkover in her semi-final match to join the Indian team.
It leaves captain Vishal Uppal with having to make careful choices for the two singles and a doubles match from among Vaishnavi Adkar, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Zeel, Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale.
Vaishnavi has enjoyed a solid season and broken into the top 400 in the singles ranking (383). Sahaja, the India No.2, is ranked 384. Zeel is ranked 550 but has been putting in the hard work on the circuit. The seasoned Ankita and Rutuja are expected to play the doubles, but the tough situation India find themselves in with five gruelling days of tennis to come, Uppal could field Ankita in a few singles matches as well.
India open against Thailand on Tuesday. The other teams in the fray are Indonesia —they are led by world No.41 Janice Tjen—New Zealand, who have two-time US Open doubles champion Erin Routliffe, South Korea, Mongolia and Thailand.
“I believe in the quality of our players and they are all hungry to show what they can achieve. It’s an opportunity for Zeel also to come and show what she is made of. She is in good form and doing well, and we just hope we are in a situation where we can move our players around and get the right balance,” Uppal said on the eve of the tournament.
India will have to finish in the top two to qualify for the play-offs. Under Uppal, the team performed exceptionally well when the tournament was held in Pune last year, finishing second to make it to the playoffs. However, India could not progress beyond that. The five-day round-robin tournament will be a test of skill and temperament. In team competitions, players rise above their rankings and India would be hoping that they are able to punch above their weight.
The seasoned Ankita Raina, an Asian Games medallist who was key to India’s success in Pune by winning the doubles matches, was upbeat. “We’ve played against these teams and we know their strengths and weaknesses. So, we are prepared. We have done it before and everyone believes we can do it again,” she said.
Every team will have to adapt to the conditions and get their combinations right. New Zealand too have come without their star singles player Lulu Sun, who was key to their campaign last year.
“BJK Cup is different from normal tennis tournaments around the year. Players are not used to playing in team competitions, and it tends to produce some surprising results. We are pretty good in that respect as most of our players come out of the college system in the USA, so they are actually used to playing in a team,” New Zealand team captain Matthew Hair said.
The road will not be easy for India, but they can count on home advantage.
“Indonesia will be tough. They have Janice. India and Thailand too will be challenging. We beat India last year, but Lulu not playing is a big blow for us. It’s going to be a really tough week. Definitely, India will have the home advantage. The heat is very different here, the humidity is high and the crowd will be there to support India. Last time, they filled the stands,” said Hair.
