Indian eves were on Friday thrashed 0-3 by the Chinese Taipei in their final pool B tennis encounter of the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania Zone qualifiers to go out of the reckoning for the World Group II play off.
India will now fight for 3 to 10 place while Chinese Taipei will take on Thailand, the topper of pool 'A', in the finals on Saturday. The winner of the two teams will advance to the World Group II play off in July.
In the absence of star player Sania Mirza, coach Enrico Piperno had said their goal was to maintain their place in the group, which they had already achieved.
The Indian team started on a negative note with Shikha Uberoi bowing down 3-6, 2-6 to Chan Chin-Wei in the first singles match.
Things were no better for the subcontinental team in the second singles duel as well as Sunitha Rao, an American Indian debuting for the country, was defeated with an identical margin by Hsieh Su-Wei.
In the doubles match, Ankita Bhambri and Tara Iyer appeared to be posing some resistance in the first set against the Chinese Taipei duo of Hsu Wen-Hsin and Hwang Hsuan but they were blanked in the second set.
The Indian pair lost 4-6, 0-6 to Wen-Hsin/Hsuan.
© Copyright 2007 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.
|