New Delhi: Ankita Raina has fought many battles for India over a long career and remains the team’s most experienced campaigner in the Billie Jean King Cup (Asia/Oceania Group 1). So, when it came to the crucial tie against South Korea on the final day at the DLTA courts here, captain Vishal Uppal turned to her for singles duty. India still had faint hopes of making the playoffs after Indonesia beat Korea in a marathon tie on Friday.
Ankita, 33, may have slipped to 588 in the rankings from a career-best 160 five years ago, but her fighting abilities remain intact. She showed that against South Korea’s Dayeon Back, ranked 246 places above her, pushing her hard before losing 1-6, 5-7. The match could have taken a different turn had Ankita held serve at 5-3 in the second set. Instead, Back won the next two games and closed it out.
Back hit with power while Ankita countered smartly with drops and slices to take the pace off and open up the court. When it worked, it brought the centre court crowd alive.
The fans then witnessed an impressive performance from young Vaishnavi Adkar. Despite a 100-place gap in the singles rankings between her and Korea’s Park So-hyun, the Indian showcased her talent to rise. She held her nerve in a gripping two-hour contest to win 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5).
Ankita returned for the doubles with Rutuja Bhosale to beat Dayeon Back and Lee Eun-hye 6-2, 6-2.
Having won three ties and lost two this week, India finished third among six teams in the round robin tournament. India thus retained their spot in the Asia-Oceania group. Last year, India qualified for the playoffs, but this time the first-day loss to Thailand proved costly. On Saturday, Thailand defeated Indonesia 2-1 and qualified for the playoffs at the top place. Indonesia finished second to progress. India would be satisfied with the display on the final day, beating Korea to take third place.
It was only possible when Vaishnavi won her singles to make it 1-1 in the tie. This was Vaishnavi’s fourth singles match of the tournament and she grew in confidence with each outing. It was her second win of the week after an opening-day loss to Thailand. Her backhand stood out throughout for its quality, and her willingness to go for winners on both flanks paid off. Vaishnavi led 5-3 in the first set, but Park fought back to force a tiebreak. There, Vaishnavi played with authority, opening with a forehand winner and following it up with a deep backhand to draw an error from her opponent, taking a one set lead.
She carried that momentum into the second set with an early break, but her high-risk approach also produced errors, allowing Park to level. In the deciding tiebreak, Vaishnavi trailed 0-3 before responding strongly. She stroked cleanly under pressure to turn the match around and sealed a memorable win over a quality opponent.
