Cover Photo – Chenthil Mohan
Day 3 of the Billie Jean King Cup in Bengaluru was in stark contrast for the Indian team compared to Day 2. On Day 2 against Slovenia, there was a lot of fight shown, a set won in singles and a doubles match won (albeit, a dead rubber). On Day 3, very little went right for India. India lost 3-0 to the Netherlands team and didn’t manage to even win a set.
The match began with Shrivalli Bhamidipaty taking on Anouk Koevermans from the Netherlands. Shrivalli ranked 381 in the world, Koevermans 198. The match began badly for Shrivalli and she was down a break early. From being down 2-0 early on, she never really recovered and lost the first set 6-2. Shrivalli’s game could not hold up to Koevermans’ defensive skills. The points often took a predictable pattern- Shrivalli would dominate the points with some aggressive groundstrokes, which were met by Koevermans’ resolute defensive skills, and the point would end with Shrivalli making an unforced error. The second set started off in much better fashion with both players holding serve till 3-3. In fact, Shrivalli had 2 opportunities to break Koevermans’s serve, but were saved courtesy an ace and a winner by Koevermans. Koevermans’ serve held up extremely well throughout the match and gave Shrivalli just 4 break point opportunities across the whole match. At 3-3, Shrivalli lost serve, and she couldn’t find a way back into the match. Koevermans won the set and the match 6-2 6-4. When asked about her defensive game during the press conference, Koevermans revealed that she wanted to get to every ball, and that that had helped her focus more.
In the second match of the tie, 309th ranked Sahaja Yamalapalli took on 87th ranked Suzan Lamens. Sahaja, much like Shrivalli, started the match slowly and was down 4-0 within the first 20 minutes. Till that point, Sahaja looked listless, but something changed from that point. Sahaja broke Lamens at 0-4 and won her first game of the match. While she went on to lose the first set 6-2 after multiple exchange of breaks, Sahaja was playing a much higher level of tennis.
In the second set too, there were multiple exchanges of breaks and the score was 3-3. Both Lamens and Sahaja were playing some long, exciting rallies, using slices, dropshots and using angles to good effect. However, Sahaja lost her way again and lost the set 6-3.
It was a day where Shrivalli made far too many unforced errors, a day where Sahaja’s serves deserted her and where she was not consistent enough. The day ended for India with a 6-1 6-1 loss in doubles. Schuur/Lamens proved to be too good for Ankita/Prarthana.