On Saturday, India, third-placed in Pool A, will play the fourth-placed team from Pool B in the relegation Play-off.

India strengthened its chances of staying in Group 1 with a 3-0 victory over Hong Kong in the FedCup Asia-Oceania women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Friday.

While it was no surprise that Ankita Raina continued to assert her solid game, the wiry Karman Kaur Thandi recaptured a semblance of her high-quality game to prepare the host for the play-off on Saturday, against fourth-placed group B team, Chinese Taipei.

More positive response

There was more positive response to the challenge ahead from the team as former Asian junior champion Y. Pranjala, paired with Prarthana Thombare for the doubles, gave a fine account of her big serves and sharp game at the net.

More than playing a fluent game, built solidly on her quick silver feet, the 25-year-old Ankita showed a high degree of concentration and stayed positive despite the tough phases against a quality opponent like Ling Zhang, who was once ranked in the top-200.

Ankita saved four breakpoints in the fifth game of the first set to stay ahead. She won an early break in the second set, but Ling Zhang showed a fine game to survive nine breakpoints in holding serve in the fifth game.

Unperturbed, Ankita broke her in the seventh game and served out the match, surviving two breakpoints along the way.

It was important for India to step up, after Ankita alone had won a point against China and Kazakhstan.

However, it had to be conceded that after meeting high quality players of China and Kazakhstan, Karman got a lot of time to play her shots and build on the confidence with explosive serves against 761st-ranked Eudice Chong.

Of course, it took some time for the 284th ranked Karman to get into her rhythm, as she dropped serve twice in the first set and early in the second set.

It should be an interesting match on Saturday, even though Chinese Taipei has not won more than one singles in all from its three matches in the pool, against formidable teams like Japan, Thailand and Korea.

The results:

Pool A: India bt Hong Kong 3-0 (Karman Kaur Thandi bt Eudice Wong Chong 6-3, 6-4; Ankita Raina bt Ling Zhang 6-3, 6-2; Prarthana Thombare & Y. Pranjala bt Kwan You Ng & Ho Ching Wu 6-2, 6-4); Kazakhstan bt China 3-0.

Pool B: Japan bt Chinese Taipei 3-0; Korea bt Thailand 2-1.