New Delhi: A coach is not judged on how they react to wins but on how they lead the team after losses. Vishal Uppal’s credentials have been put to the test this week after losing 1-2 to Thailand in the ongoing Billie Jean Gold Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 match. He faced a different challenge as Vaishnavi Adkar in the singles on Thursday, Ankita Line Doubles player Rutuja Bhosale suffered a heartbreaking beating.Another Indian player, Sahaja Yamalapalli, lost in straight sets. As a result, India lost 0-3 to Indonesia, their second loss in the round-robin tournament.
Adkar held a 7-6, 5-4 lead over Priska Madelyn Nugroho, who was out of shape and called his coach before extending the match to a medical timeout. An ice pack was brought to court and applied to the right leg. In short, the race is for India to be number one.In the subsequent doubles match, Reyna and Bosal, who had previously remained undefeated and had not lost a set, wasted multiple opportunities to force a decider: first leading 3-0, then 5-3, and then losing six set points. In short, India once again had a chance to force the match into a tie-break.“I think today is a day of missed opportunities. We had a lot of chances in the first singles match of the day. If we take our chances and lead 1-0, the pressure will be squarely on Indonesia,” Uppal told reporters.“Even in the doubles, in the second set we had five [six] set point. Yes, when you get an opportunity, you have to learn and grow from it,” he continued.Even for Sahaja, who lost 6-2, 1-6 to world No. 41 Janice Tjen, facing a top player was a rough blow in her life.“Against top players, you can’t hit two good runs and then have three or four unforced errors. That can really hurt you. So it’s something worth learning, understanding what it takes to get to this level,” Uppal explained.
Vaishnavi Adkar is cheered by her coach (photo by DLTA)
Former Davis Cooper player Upa Pool explained his captaincy style as someone who doesn’t like to be a “Debbie Downer”, preferring to see it as something worth learning and moving on from.His attention will next turn to Mongolia, but the bigger focus will be Saturday’s game against South Korea. While India’s chances of making it to the playoffs have dwindled, with South Korea and Indonesia remaining unbeaten and occupying the necessary top two spots in terms of revenue boost, Uppal stressed that sports don’t just operate on logic.“We still have to play South Korea. If we can beat them, then it depends on math, not logic. Even so, we have some young people in the team. We want to beat South Korea because we want our players to develop.” “Maybe we’ll make it this year, (maybe) we won’t make it this year. It doesn’t matter. But our tennis has to grow. Our tennis has to improve. For that, it’s important for us to go out and fight every day,” he continued.The words seemed appropriate for a leader who a day earlier had refused to take a team photo without his players present. “One member is missing. Either we take one member together or none,” he told photographers.
Billie Jean King Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 Day 3:
- India 0-3 Indonesia
- Thailand 3-0 Mongolia
- New Zealand 0-3 South Korea
