Tennis Fed Cup 2020: Ankita Raina, Rutuja Bhosale Win as India Beat Uzbekistan

Putting the disappointment of loss against China behind, India produced a much-improved show in their second round of Fed Cup 2020 on Wednesday as they beat Uzbekistan 2-0 to take an unassailable lead. Rutuja Bhosale recorded a come-from-behind win before country’s number one player Ankita Raina won the second singles Fed Cup tie to seal the deal against hapless Uzbek’s.

Rutuja erased a one-set deficit to defeat Akgul Amanmuradova 2-6, 6-2 and 7-5 in the opening singles to put India ahead. Bouncing back from the narrow defeat against China’s Qiang Wang, Ankita regrouped to humble Sabina Sharipova 7-5, 6-1 to seal the tie in India’s favour in one hour and 34 minutes.

It was the sixth meeting between the two players with Ankita winning only the second time.

After trading breaks twice, the first set was on serve and Sharipova was serving to stay in the set in the 12th game. She began by a double fault and Ankita pounced on the opportunity to put pressure on her rival. She finally converted her third set point to take the lead.

The second set was one-sided with Ankita zooming to a 4-1 lead with a double break.

India had lost 0-3 to China on the opening day of the competition. Both Ankita and Rutuja had lost their respective singles tie from Wang Qiang and Shuai Zhang of China on Tuesday.

However, Ankita came out all guns blazing against World No. 28 Qiang Wang with breaks in the fourth and sixth to take the opening set 6-1 in quick time.

But it was not enough as Wang turned the tables in no time and took the remaining two sets to clinch the match. The 28-year-old Chinese opponent is famous for her win against former world No.1 Serena Williams at the Australian Open 2020.

India will next take on Korea on Thursday. The top-two teams in the six-team competition will qualify for the Fed Cup Playoffs, to be held in April.

(With PTI Inputs)