Indian Fed Cup team is soaring high at the ongoing Asia/Oceania Group I qualifiers to clinch a spot at the World Group Play-Offs. India has now beaten Uzbekistan and Korea, after conceding defeat in the opening tie against China. Team ITD had a brief chat with the captain of the team, Mr. Vishal Uppal, to know his thoughts.
Congratulations on the win again! We did not see Sania Mirza play doubles in the first two ties. What was the strategy behind it?
The plan is quite simple. We want to use Sania when we need her the most. Obviously if the rubber is a dead one, then there is no point spending the energy of our main singles players or of Sania. Sania is a big match player and we know she’ll show up.
Rutuja has turned up very well. She had given a good fight against Shuai Zhang and won two crucial matches thereafter. What are your thoughts on it?
Yeah, I think that’s what we need to do. Everybody on the team has to play their role. Rutuja has done a good job for us. And we hope that she comes out tomorrow and continues to play well and keep doing the job for us.
How tough is this format, three days are already done and two more days to go?
We already knew how the format is, I mean, mentally we were always prepared to play for five days in a row. We know that we have to take one match at a time every day. Like I said, we are prepared, but not thinking too far ahead. We now want to just focus on Chinese Taipei whom we shall be facing tomorrow. They are a tough team and we have to be ready and do our job.
(The captain Mr. Vishal Uppal was interviewed by Mr. Krishna Kumar ji)
