India’s Billie Jean King Cup team ahead of their Asia-Oceania Group 1 matches in New Delhi. (photo by special arrangement) New Delhi: India suffered a few blows days ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 with the preliminary round in New Delhi from April 7-11. Shrivalli Bhamidipaty suffered a back spasm and Vaidehee Chaudhari twisted her ankle during practice on Thursday. Zeel Desai, who played the W15 tournament in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (earlier called Aurangabad), decided to make a switch at the semi-final stage to answer the challenge of non-playing captain Vishal Uppal.
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India’s BJK Cup team on tour loneliness, street food and social media abuse “I’m excited to be here and be a part of the Indian team. Of course I’m sad that one of my teammates got injured, I wish her a speedy recovery. It’s a privilege to play for your country,” Zeel said on the eve of the competition in Delhi. “I’m very excited about it and I’m sure we’ll all go out on the court and give our best,” she continued.Uppal said the injury changes came a few days in advance, allowing the team to make the necessary changes. Zeel was brought in as cover for Vaidehee if her ankle injury did not improve. As it turns out, it didn’t get any better for the 455th ranked player. She has now left the Team India camp and started the recovery process.“We knew about her (Shrivalli’s) injury before the start of this week, so we already took that into account and made the necessary changes in our plans that we needed to. And we have a pretty deep squad and I believe in these five girls sitting next to me that they have what it takes to qualify (for the playoffs),” said Uppal, who is the team’s second non-playing captain.
Vaishnavi Adkar addresses a press conference ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup 2026 tennis tournament in New Delhi. (PTI)
The onus is on India’s No.1 Vaishnavi Adkar, Sahaj Yamalappalli, Ankita Raina, Rutuja Bhosala and Desai to guide India’s charge to a third play-off in six years.Adkar, 21, climbed to the top of the Indian singles rankings on Monday and is expected to make her national team debut next week. Punekar earned her first call-up to the competition after a breakthrough run to the final of the W100 event in Bengaluru – the first by an Indian in over a decade, and also clinched an ITF title earlier this season.But the lack of strong singles options, with Adkar as high as 383, makes the doubles rubber extremely important.“It’s an honor to be on this team representing the country. And it’s even more special because we’re all on the same team. It’s very rare that we get to play on the same team and we’re all on the same side of the net. So it’s really a privilege to be on the same team and all these girls. And we’re just looking forward to all the games,” she said.
Vishal Uppal during a press conference ahead of the Billie Jean King Cup 2026 tennis tournament in New Delhi. (PTI)
India will play in round robin format against Thailand on Tuesday. Other countries in the group are New Zealand, Indonesia, Republic of Korea and Mongolia. The top two teams after a week of competition advance to the playoffs.Uppal played his cards close to his chest in terms of strategy and nominations. He emphasized that the multiple options available to him reflect the depth of women’s tennis in India.“If I’m having a problem picking up players for a draw, then that’s a good problem. That just tells me there’s depth there. So I’m more happy to have that problem than to have a problem where I don’t have a player.” “I think it’s a good problem for me and it also shows the depth of women’s tennis now. There are players like Zeal played a tournament last week and we asked her to come here and she came here to be with the team,” former player Uppal said in Delhi.platoons:India: Sahaja Yamalapalli, Vaishnavi Adkar, Zeel Desai, Ankita Raina, Rutuja Bhosale.Indonesia: Janice Tjen, Priska Madelyn Nugroho, Anjali Kirana Junarto, Meydiana Laviola Reinnamah and Aldila Sutjiadi.Korea: Cast: Sohyun Park, Eunhye Lee, Dayeon Back, BoYoung Jeong, Gaeul Jang.Mongolia: Jargal Altansarnai, Khongorzul Aldarkhishig, Anu-Vjin Gantor, Oyungerel Khasbaatar.New Zealand: Monique Barry, Valentina Ivanov, Aishi Das and Erin Routliffe.Thailand: Patcharin Cheapchandej, Anchisa Chanta, Thasaporn Naklo, Peangtarn Plipuech and Kamonwan Yodpetch.BJK CUP FORMAT
- Each team plays the other team once
- Each tie consists of three rubbers: 2 singles and 1 doubles
- Will doubles be played if a team leads 2-0 and wins singles? Yes, because tiebreaks also take into account sets and games won.
- The top two teams after five days of competition advance to the play-offs (to be played in November 2026).
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HOW THEY DECIDE TIE RANKINGS:
- Highest number of wins (draws won)
- If two teams are tied, their head-to-head record
- If still no break, the highest percentage of rubbers won
- If still no break, highest percentage of sets won
- If still no break, highest percentage of games won
