Billie Jean King Cup: India defeats New Zealand; retains place in Asia/Oceania Group I

The Indian women's tennis team registered their second straight tie victory as they defeated New Zealand, 2-1, and saved their place in the Asia/Oceania Group I spot at the Billie Jean King Cup 2022.

Having lost their first two ties - against Japan and China, quite wholly, India was on the brink of being relegated from Asia/Oceania Group I and slip to Group II instead. However, that will no longer be the case after Ankita Raina, and Rutuja Bhosale put on a good show and won their respective matches to keep India's place secure.

Playing on the dusty clay courts of the MTA Tennis Academy in Antalya, Turkey, the Indian team proved to be dominant against New Zealand and continued their tie winning streak after getting their first one in the bag against Indonesia earlier (2-1).

In the singles, Rutuja Bhosale (singles-477) took on lower-ranked Valentina Ivanov and humbled her, 6-1, 7-6 while Tokyo-returned Olympian Ankita Raina (singles-319) put her best foot forward against Paige Hourigan (singles-462) and defeated her, 7-5, 6-3.

However, in the doubles, the duo of Sowjanya Bavisetti and Riya Bhatia were handed a crushing defeat including a bagel in the second set as they lost to the pair of Paige Hourigan and Erin Routliffe.

Currently, with two tie wins, India is placed in the 4th spot of the table rankings with China, Japan and Korea above it and New Zealand and Indonesia below them in the Group I rankings.

Next up, India will take on Korea in their final tie today.