Day 3 proved to be a sobering day for the Indian women as they were blanked 3-0 by Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Group 1 tie of the Billie Jean King Cup in New Delhi on Thursday.
Vaishnavi Adkar, playing the Cup for the first time, put up a strong fight before succumbing to a 7-6 (3), 6-7 (3), 6-3 loss to Priska Nugroho in the opening singles.
World No. 41 Janice Tjen proved to be too good for Sahaja Yamalapalli as she eased to a 6-2, 6-1 in just an hour and 13 minutes.
Tjen, who had lifted the trophy at the WTA Tour event in Chennai last year, then returned to the courts to partner Aldila Sutjiadi and secure a vital 6-3, 7-6 (4) win against Ankita Raina and Rutuja Bhosale, who had won the doubles rubbers in the previous two matches.
The whitewash meant India were fourth in the table, which is topped by Republic of Korea, followed by Indonesia and Thailand.
While both Korea and Indonesia have won all their three games, the former is placed on top based on their all-win record, as against the latter’s 8-1 in terms of matches.
In a format where every game counts towards the standings — only the top two teams advance to the World Group playoffs — India have an uphill task to in their remaining two matches.
They take on Mongolia on Friday before facing off Korea on Saturday, the concluding day of the competition.
“It’s a tough day, a day of missed chances for us. Had we converted (those), this could have been a different story. But the reality is we didn’t,” captain Vishaal Uppal said, referring to Vaishnavi’s tightly fought opening match and the doubles.
“We have to go back to the drawing board, learn from it and move on. We have to come out fighting hard.”
Cross Court Winner 