India Back to Asia/Oceania Group 1
[Mon Feb , 03:59:46]India bounced back to Group 1 at Fed Cup defeating Kyrgyzstan with 3-0 score. Earlier it had defeated Malaysia without losing a single match. But coach, Enrico Piperno still looks for a second strong player to support Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza.
"Sania (Mirza) is ranked 59 in the world and Poojashree (Venkatesha), India's second highest ranked player, is 357. That alone tells the story," said Piperno after India won over Kyrgyzstan.
Poojashree suffered from knee injury was not able to play the singles against Kyrgyzstan. So, Rushmi Chakravarthy stepped in her place and defeated Bermet Duvanaeva 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 losing one set. "Rashmi had not played singles for a long time, but thankfully her experience came handy," said Sania.
Followed by it, Sania dismissed Ksenia Palkina with ease 6-0, 6-2. Rushmi and Sanaa Bhambri concluded the tie defeating Bermet and Nelli Buyuklianova 6-0, 1-0.
When asked to Piperno, about India's performance at Fed Cup next year, he could not predict whether India would stay in Group I next year. Nor did he say anything about whether India would get to Group 1 without Sania.
"That's a good question. Group I will be tough as teams like Kazakhstan are really strong. They have players ranked in the top-100," said the coach.
"We really need a second player to support Sania. We need to work on our second string… Unless players like Poojashree get in to top-150, stand-up and be counted, it's going to be difficult. But overall I am excited as we didn't lose a game this time," he added.
