(To Sowjanya Bavisetti)
So yesterday was your Fed Cup debut. After years of hard work you finally made it here? Your thoughts on it?
It is always an honor to play for the country and it has been my dream. I mean, I have always wanted to win the Nationals, and then if you win it they usually take you on the team. But I was not sure. I am happy that I made it, even though I was picked as a reserve initially, getting an opportunity to play for the country is something else and I am very happy!
After a long time, you are playing doubles with Riya. How was it on the court in terms of coordination, yesterday and today?
Yesterday we were thrown off a little because we did not get to practice much as Riya had some pain. So we took time to adjust with each other. We know each other’s games very well. But, I don’t know, when you play together on the same side of the court, it is very different, and it does become a little hard in the beginning. Also, we were also against some of the best players in the world and we were completely thrown off. But we went on court today and tried to figure out our strengths and weaknesses, and I think we did a pretty good job today.
Based on yesterday’s match and today’s match, any areas do you think you can do better?
I think I can help my partner a little bit more at the net.
What are your views on the upcoming matches?
Right now I am really excited that I got my first win. And whoever it is tomorrow, we are looking forward to it. We will get back on the court in the morning and work even harder.
(To Riya Bhatia)
Congratulations on today’s victory. You have played a couple of Fed Cup ties earlier. How do you view your form coming to this tournament?
Actually, I am pretty confident this time that we really have a chance to qualify. Since Sania is in the team, I am happy about that as well. I mean the whole team is really confident about that. So we are just going match by match. Let’s see how it goes.
What are your thoughts on yesterday’s loss and today’s win?
Yesterday we had very tough opponents and we were playing together for the first time. I haven’t played doubles for a while now, so it was a little rusty. As you can see that today was much better. We also practiced together before the match, to understand how we play, and that’s what changed today.
Your thoughts on the upcoming ties?
As I said, we are looking forward to them and shall take it match by match and see how it goes. But we are really confident because we have very good singles players and we have Sania for doubles, so I think that is going to be in our favor.
(The players were interviewed by Krishnakumar Duraiswamy ji)
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