China defeat India in Fed Cup opening clash

India lost the opening match of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I against China by 3-0 margin at Dubai on Tuesday.

India lost the opening match of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group I against China by 3-0 margin at Dubai on Tuesday. Playing against the full-strength Chinese team, which comprises of three top-50 players on the WTA rankings, Indian challenge came up short even as India's highest-ranked player Ankita Raina survived two match points but lost to China's top player Qiang Wang 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, eventually.

Raina, world number 160, put up an inspired fight before succumbing to Wang in a battle that lasted two hours and 24 minutes and China took an unassailable lead of 2-0 before the doubles rubber later in the day. In the first rubber, Rutuja Bhosale started the proceedings for team India against Shuai Zhang who ranks 35 in the world. Zhang opened the scoreboard for China with a 6-4, 6-2 win in one hour and 16 minutes.

The 26-year-old Sowjanya Bavisetti debuted for India in the doubles match with Riya Bhatia accompanying her in the match that lasted 50 minutes. China's Shuai Peng and YiFan Xu beat the Indian pair 6-0, 6-1 in the third rubber. India will next play against Uzbekistan, who started off with a 0-3 defeat to Korea.

India is scheduled to play Korea, Chinese Taipei and Indonesia in the remaining competition. In this round-robin competition, the top two sides will advance to the play-offs to be played on April 17-18. (ANI)