Dubai: India’s top tennis player Ankita Raina is confident the country will be able to be a serious Fed Cup contender provided the junior brigade lives up to their potential.
India lost close ties against China and Kazakhstan on their opening two days, but managed to retain their place in the Asia-Oceania Group I of the Fed Cup played last week. Raina played a crucial role in this while winning all her four singles matches, including wins over higher-ranked players like Lin Zhu (China) and Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan) to give India a fighting chance in every tie they played.
On Saturday, she was a last-minute replacement in the qualifying rounds of the Dubai Tennis Championships that got under way with the main draw on Monday. Her opponent was former US Open champion Samantha Stosur, but the 25-year-old Indian — who has shifted to Pune from Gujarat and give her tennis career a better chance — went for her shots and matched her more seasoned opponent till she lost 4-6, 4-6 in nearly two hours of intense action.
“Yes, we will soon be able to get to the next level as a team. No doubt, I had some really great matches and some good wins. All we need now is for the young girls to come through and live up to their potential,” Raina told Gulf News.
“I am hoping we will see a few more of the juniors to continue developing as players. We’ve got a player like Sania Mirza who has shown us exactly what needs to be done to be successful at the top level of women’s tennis, and we have to just follow her cue,” she added.
Playing in Dubai in front of a cheering group of supporters gave Raina the motivation she needed against a more experienced opponent like Stosur. “In the first place, it was like a dream-come-true for me. I had dreamt of playing Dubai ever since I was little. Then to get this opportunity of playing a former Grand Slam player is simply too good. The last two weeks have been a great part of my learning curve as a player. I have definitely taken a lot of lessons especially after this match,” Raina said.
Armed with this experience, Raina believes she can have a crack at the gold medal at the Jakarta Asian Games later this summer. “For now, the huge motivation is the Asian Games as a medal there will guarantee me an automatic place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games,” she admitted.
“And by the end of the year, I want to break into the top-150,” Raina added.