Ankita Raina in action (DLTA Photography)
New Delhi: A lot can be said about a coach not by his reaction to a win, but by the way he leads the team after a loss. Vishal Uppal’s credentials were already put to the test this week after a 2-1 defeat to Thailand in their Asia-Oceania Group A match at the Billie Jean King Cup.
He was presented with a different challenge on Thursday, as Vaishnavi Adkar, in the singles, and Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale, in the doubles, suffered painful blows.Sahaja Yamalapalli, the other Indian participant, lost in straight sets. As a result, India lost 0-3 to Indonesia in their second loss in the league system.
He watches
Vishal Uppal on India’s chances in the BJK Cup, the growth of tennis, and why doubles are more exciting than singles
Adkar defeated Prisca Madeleine Nugroho 7-6, 5-4, and the Indonesian was suffering physically, after she summoned the coach and then extended the treatment period to a period of rest.
An ice pack was brought into court and placed on his right leg. Quite simply, the game was ripe for India’s top spot.Later, in doubles, Raina and Bhosale, who had never lost or dropped a set previously, wasted several chances to force a decider: leading 3-0, then 5-3 and then giving up six set points. Once again, quite simply, India had the opportunity to force a tie-break in the match.“I think today was a day of missed opportunities. We had a lot of chances in the first singles match of the day.
“If we had scored that and gone 1-0 up, the pressure would have been directly on Indonesia,” Uppal told reporters.“And even in doubles, in the second set we had five [six] Identify points. “And yes, it’s something you have to learn from and grow from. When you get your chances, you have to convert them.”Even for Sahaja, who lost 2-6, 1-6 to world number 41 Janis Tjen, it was a harsh shock of life against a prominent player.“Against the top players, you can’t play two good points and then make three or four unforced errors. That really hurts you. So it’s something to learn from and understand what it takes to get to this level,” Uppal explained.
Vaishnavi Adkar being cheered on by the coach (Photo by DLTA)
Opable, a former Davis Cooper player, explained his approach to leading the team as someone who doesn’t like to be a “Debbie Downer” and prefers to look at it as something to learn from and move forward.His focus will shift to Mongolia after that, but the biggest focus will be on the confrontation against Korea on Saturday.
Although India’s chances of reaching the qualifiers are dwindling, with Korea and Indonesia unbeaten and securing the top two places necessary for promotion, Uppal stressed that the sport does not work on logic alone.“We still have to play Korea. If we can beat them, it’s based on math, not logic. Even otherwise, we have some youngsters in this team. We want to beat Korea because we want our players to improve.” He continued, “Maybe we will succeed this year, (maybe) we will not succeed this year. That’s okay. But our tennis must grow. Our tennis must improve. For this reason, it is important for us to fight every day.”These seem appropriate words for a leader who, the day before, refused to take a group photo without a team member present. He told the photographer: “One member is missing. We’ll take one together or nothing.”
Day 3 of the Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1:
- India 0-3 Indonesia
- Thailand 3-0 Mongolia
- New Zealand 0-3 Korea