Indian women gear up for BJK Cup, target second straight World Group playoffs

Having reached the World Group playoffs for only the second time last year, the Indian women’s tennis team would be hoping to repeat the feat while playing at home for the second successive time when the Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group I gets underway here from April 7.

The Indian team is having a five-day preparatory camp at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA) Stadium —venue for the competition — and had its first training session on Thursday morning. With the matches scheduled to begin only in the second half of the day and continue under lights, the team is expected to switch to training in the evening for the remaining days.

Sweating it out

Ankita Raina, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaishnavi Adkar, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Rutuja Bhosale and Vaidehee Chaudhari sweated it under the watchful eyes of captain Vishal Uppal, who will be hoping to get the team combinations right.

Besides India, the other teams include New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, Mongolia and Korea with the top-two advancing to the playoffs in November.

Good show

India won 2-1 each against Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Korea in Pune before losing to Slovenia and Netherlands in the playoffs last year.