New Delhi: There was an air of confidence around the Indian women’s tennis team as the players assembled at the DLTA courts on Thursday to prepare for the Billie Jean King Cup (Asia/Oceania Group I).
Under captain Vishal Uppal, the team punched above its weight last year, pulling off impressive wins to qualify for the play-offs. It was only the second time that India had reached this stage. They eventually lost to the Netherlands and Slovenia, and are now back at the same stage to make another push into the upper tiers of the BJK Cup.
Promising Vaishnavi Adkar has added to the strength of this side. The 21-year-old is highly regarded, having broken into the top-400 on the WTA rankings following a remarkable run on the ITF circuit. She will bring fresh energy alongside Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaidehee Chaudhari and experienced players Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale. Uppal, however, knows that none of the teams will be pushovers. Indonesia, Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Thailand, will all pose stiff challenges.
“It’s going to be a tough task and a tough battle for everyone,” Uppal told Hindustan Times. “Everyone is coming with a good team. You can’t even take Mongolia lightly because they have qualified for Group 1. Then, you have New Zealand and Indonesia who have top-400 singles players and obviously, they start as slight favorites over others. Korea and Thailand are never easy.”
“It all comes down to teamwork. Shrivalli might have won five singles matches last time, but then we could not have qualified had Vaidehee not won her singles matches or if Ankita and Prarthana (Thombare) hadn’t won their doubles matches. So everyone has to play the role and everyone has to come together. That’s the attitude I’ve been trying to instill in the team since I became captain and they displayed it on the court last year.”
“I’m hoping that the crowds of Delhi NCR will come out in large numbers to support Team India, and that could be the home-court advantage we’re looking for.”
Uppal feels women’s tennis is heading in the right direction. “The first time we qualified for the World Group Playoffs was in 2020 but unfortunately, the very next day Covid lockdown happened, so, the team didn’t get its due. That was the first time we qualified ever in the 42 years history of the BJK Cup and we did it again last year. So in the last five years, we’ve qualified twice, which tells you that we just need to keep supporting, encouraging and nurturing the talent that is working hard and make sure that we have a much larger pool of players to really back.”
Vaishnavi will be making her first appearance in the BJK Cup and Uppal said the team will be looking to make the most of her good form. “We’ll see how we can use her to benefit the team.”
