Ankita Raina tried to revive India’s fortunes and make a fight of it against World No.43 Yulia Putintseva, but host Kazakhstan asserted its class in recording a 3-0 victory over India in the last league match of the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania group-1 tennis event here on Friday.
Putintseva, a two-time quarterfinalist at Roland Garros, won 6-1, 7-6(4) to seal victory for Kazakhstan, after the 97th ranked Zarina Diyas had beaten Karman Thandi 6-3, 6-2.
Ankita did well to bounce back from 3-5, and 0-30 on her serve in that second set to make a fight of it, but at 4-4 in the tie-break, the Kazakh stepped it up.
“Ankita tried her hardest. Putintseva played really solid and didn’t give any free points. In the tie-breaker, she made only one error,” captain Vishaal Uppal said.
Even though Karman looked to have lost her match rather tamely to Diyas, Vishaal praised her for faring better than last year.
“Karman played a much better match today, and hopefully she will learn and grow,” said the captain.
Once the tie was lost with the defeat of Ankita in the second rubber, the captain changed the doubles team to give Riya Bhatia and Prarthana Thombare a taste of competition.
“I rested Karman and Ankita in the doubles, as they need time to recover for tomorrow. We want to beat Korea. It will be a tough tie and we need to be physically ready for it,” he said.
India will play Korea for the third place. Thailand will play Indonesia in the relegation play-off between the two third-placed teams in the two groups.
Pacific Oceania has been relegated as it finished fourth in the other group.
Favourite China will play Kazakhstan to gain the sole berth on offer for the World Group-2 play-off from the group.
The results (league): Kazakhstan bt India 3-0 (Zarina Diyas bt Karman Thandi 6-3, 6-2; Yulia Putintseva bt Ankita Raina 6-1, 7-6(4); Anna Danilina & Galina Voskoboeva bt Riya Bhatia & Prarthana Thombare 6-1, 6-1).