Ankita Raina gave her all in an extremely close defeat while Karman Kaur Thandi too fought her heart out before losing as India trailed 0-2...
Ankita Raina gave her all in an extremely close defeat while Karman Kaur Thandi too fought her heart out before losing as India trailed 0-2 on the opening day of the Billie Jean King Cup Play-offs, in Jurmala, Latvia on Friday.
The 174th-ranked Ankita gave a mighty scare to 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, ranked 52, before losing 2-6 7-5 5-7 in two hours and 16 minutes.
Producing high-quality tennis, both the players tested all aspects of each other’s game and eventually, Ostapenko’s experience of playing high-stake games pulled her through.
Karman, ranked as low as 621, showed improvements in her game during a 4-6 0-6 defeat against world number 47 Anastasija Sevastova in the second singles.
Karman’s furious forehand surprised Sevastova a number of times but the Latvian was clearly way ahead in terms of game-planning and skill.
The tall Karman, though, now competes hard irrespective of the situation – an aspect which was absent earlier in her game.
As she went for her shots, a lot of unforced errors cost Karman, dear.
It cost her the second game of the second set when she was up 40-0 on Sevastova’s serve but could convert none of the breakpoints.
From there it was one-way traffic.
Competing outside the zonal competition for the first time, India will now...
