New Delhi: Much can be said about a coach not by how he reacts to a win but how he leads the team after a loss. Vishal Apel’s credentials were already tested this week after losing 1-2 to Thailand in the ongoing Asia/Oceania Group 1 tie of the Billy Jean King Cup. He was presented with a different challenge in the singles as Vaishnavi Udkar on Thursday. Ankita Raina And Rutoja Bhosle suffered a heartbreaking beating in the doubles.The other Indian involved, Sahaja Yamla Palli, lost in straight sets. As a result, India lost 0–3 to Indonesia, their second loss in the round-robin format.
Adkar overcame Priska Madeleine Nogroho 7-6, 5-4, and with the Indonesian struggling physically, she called for a trainer and then extended a medical timeout. An ice pack was brought to the court and applied to the right leg. Simply put, this match was to get India’s No.1.Later, in the doubles, Raina and Bhosle, who had been unbeaten and hadn’t dropped a set before, squandered multiple chances to force a decider: leading 3-0, then 5-3 and then dropping six set points. Again, simply put, India had a chance to force a match tie-break.“I think today was a missed opportunity. We had a lot of chances in the first singles match of the day. And if we had converted it to go 1-0 up, the pressure would have been squarely on Indonesia,” Appel told reporters.“And even in doubles, we had five in the second set. [six] Set points. And yes, when you get opportunities to learn and grow, you have to change them,” he continued.Even for Sahaja, who lost 2-6, 1-6 to world number 41 Janis Tijn, it was a shock of a lifetime against a top player.“Against the top players, you can’t play two good points and then have three or four mistakes. It really hurts you. So it’s something to learn from and understand what it takes to get to that level,” Appel explained.
Vaishnavi Adkar cheered by the coach (Photo by DLTA)
Appel, a former Davis Cupper, described his style of captaincy as someone who doesn’t like to be a “debbie downer” and prefers to see it as something to learn from and move on from.His focus will turn to Mongolia in the next round but more emphasis will be on Saturday’s tie against Korea. Although India’s chances of making the play-offs have faded, with Korea and Indonesia remaining unbeaten and taking the top two spots needed to earn promotion, Appel stressed that the game does not operate on logic alone.“We still have to play Korea. If we can beat them, it comes down to math, not logic. Otherwise, we have some youngsters in this team. We want to beat Korea because we want our players to develop. “Maybe we can make it this year, (maybe) we can’t make it this year. That’s fine. But our tennis has to grow. Our tennis has to improve. And that requires us to come out fighting every single day,” he continued.These seem fitting words from a leader who the day before refused to take a team photo without a squad member. “One member is missing. We take one or none,” he told the photographer.
Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 Day 3:
- India 0-3 Indonesia
- Thailand 3-0 Mongolia
- New Zealand 0-3 Korea
