Best isn’t good enough

AITA’s current selection policy for the tournament involves choosing the top three ranked players on the national U-16 rankings. However,they may not be reflective of,or be a hard and fast measure,for the most talented in the country,as several players who try to play in the ITF Futures junior event in India or abroad miss playing in the AITA ranking tournaments,and thereby on their rank becoming ineligible for selection.

A similar exodus towards ITF events to collect world ranking points is even more prominent in the girls circuit and a similar problem of not fielding India’s best bets in the Junior Fed Cup is likely to crop up next week when the event will commence. This time around,preference has been given to Jasmine Kaur Bajaj and Sneha Devi Reddy in the junior Fed Cup team over Kanika Vaidya (241),Tarrannum Handa (272) and Rutuja Bhosale (354) who have a better ITF ranking,which should be the parameter in an international tournament rather than the national rankings.

“Its not about the result,these seeded teams were favourites to beat us but I am disappointed with the effort. Players need to show more heart on the court. You can’t win the qualification spot with just one good player in the team. If we are not looking at ITF rankings,then we are doing something wrong because this is a world class event where players within top-100 ITF junior rankings are participating,” team captain Vishal Uppal said.

Interestingly in the Indian team,only Sheik Abdullah (326) has an ITF ranking while the other two — Fatehdeep Singh and Garvit Batra have no records. “I have been with the Junior Davis Cup team for the last two years and this time I wanted to have trials to select the team and have even requested AITA to review the policy. But the thing is that this year its not happening so we have to abide by it and try our best with this team,” Uppal added.

Asked if in his position as selector he could make an exception and conduct fair-for-all trials,Uppal expressed that AITA has faced situations in the past where people have written to the federation protesting any other method than that of national rankings. “AITA is also in a Catch 22 situation,as parents,coaches etc complain if someone other than the top three ranked players are picked. They argued that their child/ward has been working throughout the year for the top rank and should be considered. I am taking responsibility for this but after the two tournaments we will sit and make amends for the future,” Uppal said.

India lose 3-0 to China

The second round robin rubber for India began with Fatehdeep Singh taking on Chinese Ze-Yu Li,only to end on the losing side in a one and a half hour encounter with a 6-4 6-3 scoreline. There were high hopes from Sheik Abdullah to pull back one match but a niggling muscle pull in his back prevented him from giving his best and he too failed by the wayside with a 3-6 0-6 loss against Si-Yu Liu. He was rested in the dead doubles rubber,where Garvit Batra replaced him. The change,however,did not reverse India’s fortunes as Li and Zhi-Cheng Zhu combined to hand the hosts a 6-1 6-2 loss in less than an hour.

Other results: Japan (1) beat New Zealand 3-0,Australia (2) beat Phillipines 3-0,Korea (7) beat Kazakhstan 3-0,Hong Kong (5) bt Indonesia 3-0,Chinese Taipei (4) beat Sri Lanka 3-0,Uzbekistan (3) beat Malaysia 3-0,Thailand (8) beat Syria 3-0