From hope to heartbreak: India learn the cost of not closing things out in BJK Cup

NEW DELHI: A lot can be said of a coach not by how they react to a win but how they spearhead a team after a loss. Vishal Uppal's credentials were tested already this week after a 1-2 defeat to Thailand in the ongoing Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie of the Billie Jean King Cup.

He was presented with a different challenge on Thursday as Vaishnavi Adkar, in singles, and Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale, in doubles, suffered heartbreaking beatings.

Sahaja Yamalapalli, the other Indian involved, lost in straight sets. As a result, India went down 0-3 to Indonesia in what was their second loss of the round-robin format.





Adkar led Priska Madelyn Nugroho 7-6, 5-4, and the Indonesian was struggling physically, having called the trainer and then extended it to a medical timeout. An ice pack was brought to the court and applied to the right leg. Put simply, the match was there for the taking for the India No. 1.

Later, in the doubles, Raina and Bhosale, who had been unbeaten and not dropped a set all week, squandered multiple chances to force a decider: leading 3-0, then 5-3 and then let go of six set points. Again, put simply, India had the opportunity to force a match tiebreak -- at the very least.

"I think today was a day of missed chances. We had a lot of chances in the first singles match of the day. And had we converted that and gone up 1-0, the pressure would have been on Indonesia straight up," Uppal told reporters.

"And even in the doubles, in the second set we had five [six] set points. And yeah, something just to learn from and grow from that when you get your chances, you've got to convert them," he continued.

Even for Sahaja, who lost 2-6, 1-6 to World No. 41 Janice Tjen, it was a rude shock of life against a top player.

"Against the top players, you can't play two good points and then have three or four unforced errors. That really hurts you. So it's something to learn from and understand what it takes to get to that level," explained Uppal.

Uppal, a former Davis Cupper, explained his captaincy style as someone who doesn't like being the "Debbie Downer" and would prefer to look at it as something to learn from and move on.

His focus will shift to Mongolia next but the larger emphasis will be on the tie against Korea on Saturday. Even though India's chances have faded of making the playoffs, with Korea and Indonesia unbeaten and taking the necessary top-two places in earning promotion, Uppal stressed that sport doesn't work on logic alone.

"We still have to play Korea. If we can beat them, then it comes down to mathematics, not the logic. Even otherwise, we have some youngsters on this team. We want to beat Korea because we want our players to develop.

"Maybe we make it this year, (maybe) we don't make it this year. That's okay. But our tennis has to grow. Our tennis has to improve. And for that, it's important for us to come out fighting every single day," he continued.

These appear to be fitting words of a leader who a day ago refused to take a team photo without a member of the squad present. "One member is missing. We take one together or none," he told the photographer.

Day 3 of Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1:

• India 0-3 Indonesia
• Thailand 3-0 Mongolia
• New Zealand 0-3 Korea

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