Ankita Raina in action (Photo by DLTA) NEW DELHI: You can tell a lot about coaches, not by how they react to a win, but by how they lead the team after a loss. Vishal Uppal’s credentials have already been tested this week following a 1-2 defeat to Thailand in the ongoing Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie. On Thursday, he faced a different challenge as Vaishnavi Adkar in the singles and Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale suffered a heartbreaking beating in the doubles.Sahaja Yamalapalli, the other Indian participating, lost in straight sets. As a result, India lost 0–3 to Indonesia, their second defeat in the round-robin format.
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Vishal Uppal on India’s BJK Cup chances, tennis growth and why doubles is more exciting than singlesAdkar was leading Priska Madelyn Nugroho 7-6, 5-4 and the Indonesian was struggling physically, calling the trainer and extending it for a medical timeout. An ice pack was brought onto the court and applied to the right leg. Simply put, it was a match for India’s number one.Later, in the doubles, Raina and Bhosale, previously unbeaten and unbeaten in a set, squandered several chances to force a decider: leading 3-0, then 5-3, before dropping six set points. Again, to put it simply, India had the chance to force a match tiebreaker.“I think today was a day of missed chances. We had a lot of chances in the first singles of the day. And if we converted them and went 1-0 up, the pressure would have been straight up on Indonesia,” Uppal told reporters.“And even in doubles, we had five (six) set points in the second set. And yes, something we can learn from and grow from, when you get your chances, you have to convert them,” he continued.Even for Sahaja, who lost 2-6, 1-6 to world No. 41 Janice Tjenova, it was a rude shock of her life against a top player.“You can’t play two good points against the top players and then have three or four unforced errors. That really hurts you. So it’s something you have to learn from and understand what it takes to get to that level,” Uppal explained.
Vaishnavi Adkar encouraged by coach (Photo: DLTA)
Upapl, a former Davis Cupper, explained his captaincy style as someone who doesn’t like being a “Debbie Downer” and would rather look at it as something to learn from and move on from.The focus will be on Mongolia next, but more emphasis will be placed on Saturday’s draw with Korea. Although India’s chances of making the play-offs have faded, with Korea and Indonesia unbeaten and occupying the necessary top two spots in gaining promotion, Uppal stressed that sport does not run on logic alone.“We still have to play Korea. If we can beat them, then it’s about math, not logic. We have some youngsters in this team anyway. We want to beat Korea because we want our players to develop.” “Maybe we can do it this year, we (maybe) not do it this year. That’s fine. But our tennis has to grow. Our tennis has to improve. And that’s why it’s important for us to fight every day,” he continued.Those seem to be the apt words of the leader who refused to take a picture without a team member present the other day. “One member is missing. We’ll take one together or none at all,” he told the photographer.
Billie Jean King Cup Day 3 Asia/Oceania Group 1:
- India 0-3 Indonesia
- Thailand 3-0 Mongolia
- New Zealand 0-3 Korea
