Sania and Ankita to lead Indian charge at Fed Cup

After poor outing in the doubles of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Sania Mirza will be looking to give her best shot when India take on China on the opening day of the Asia/Oceania Group I Fed Cup at the Aviation Club in Dubai from March 3-7.

The ITF named the new venue after moving out the matches from then Chinese city of Dongguan due to coronavirus threat.

The Asia/Oceania Group I matches were originally scheduled to be played from Feb.4-8.

Sania, who has recovered successfully from the calf injury, will be leading India’s charge along with Ankita Raina. Other members of the India team include Riya Bhatia, Rutuja Bhosale, Karman Kaur Thandi and Sowjanya Bavisetti.

India has been seeded 5th in the group in which it is placed alongside China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia.

The presence of the experienced Sania and Ankita’s brilliant form will give India a good chance to qualify for the play-offs.

Ankita is confident that she would be able to play a significant role to lift the team to the next level in Fed Cup. The return of Sania would also play a major role to lift the spirits and fortunes of the team.

Ankita has been in superb form and won two ITF singles (ITF Thailand Open 2020 and ITF India Open 2020) and doubles titles each in the current season itself.

The 27-year-old is currently ranked 160 in Singles, which is her career-best.

The Indian team will face stiff competition from China. Qiang Wang, Saisai Zheng and Shuai Zhang (WR 35) — three of China’s players are currently ranked under 100.