NEW DELHI: When this writer spoke to the Indian team ahead of Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie in New Delhi, Ankita Raina categorically pointed out that she wasn’t done playing singles. She was right. The 33-year-old had played as recently as March 23 at the W15 in Nagpur. However, her last foray in the national colours was two years ago and last win came on 9 April, 2024. After a comfortable win, she lost four in a row the same week, including a double bagel at the hands of China’s Qinwen Zheng.
Last year, non-playing captain Vishal Uppal shifted focus towards the youth in the singles department. Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Sahaja Yamalapalli and Vaidehee Chaudhari. Raina, meanwhile, became the designated doubles choice.That remained the theme over the course of the ongoing week. Vaishnavi Adkar replaced the injured Bhamidipaty and Yamalapalli, Zeel Desai played the other singles rubbers.With back against the wall and in a must-win position, Uppal reverted to his experienced former India No. 1. India had to beat Korea 3-0 and needed Indonesia to beat Thailand in order to qualify for the playoffs for a second straight year.The recent history gave India reason to believe – they had won the last two meetings with Korea (2-1 in 2024 and 2025). But, never had India beaten Korea 3-0 in the team competition.That streak, unfortunately for India’s chances, continued on Saturday. The Indian team beat Korea 2-1 while the other tie also didn’t go their way with Thailand edging Indonesia.As a result, India finish third – behind Thailand and Indonesia – with only the top two progressing to the playoffs.If getting a strong start was the need of the hour, things didn’t go as planned with Raina going 0-4 down in the first set having played a 20 point game along the way.Having conceded the first set, Raina had the upper hand in the second set and led 5-3 to try and force a decider. However, the 342nd ranked Dayeon Back staged a stunning fightback to win four games in a row, including 16 of the last 23 points.“One was that (experience). Second was because the courts are slow. And the way Dayeon Back plays, we needed someone who could press her and get to the net,” said Uppal.“Also the part of the strategy was to make Vaishnavi go up against Sohyun Park because, I mean, I’ve watched Park enough and I know to beat her, we need to bring a little more firepower because she runs down a lot of balls. That part of the plan was good.”“Like I said, it’s not about today. We messed up on day one (vs Thailand). So, I mean, look the idea against Korea at the start of the week also was that we have to get to doubles, come what may, because I know our doubles team is pretty solid, pretty good.”“And we showed that with a dominating win. So I think the strategy today was to press because we knew we had to try and win 3-0 today. And, yeah, it didn’t go our way,” he accepted.With the first singles match lost, rest of the tie became a mere formality. But that meant little to the crowd who occupied plenty of seats with the sun fading.The top-ranked Indian Vaishnavi Adkar and Sohyun Park gave the crowd plenty to cheer in their two hour and 20 minute contest which Adkar won 7-6, 7-6.In the final doubles, Raina teamed up with Rutuja Bhosale to down Back and Eunhye Lee 6-2, 6-2.
