Indian eves promise an improved showing

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7. They may not be able to spring a miracle, but the Indian girls have promised to put up their best performance in the Asia-Oceania group `I' Fed Cup tournament to be held in Kao Hsiung, Chinese Taipei from Monday.

``We did very well last year, and we hope to do better this time. The idea is to keep improving every year'', said Nirupama Vaidyanathan, the spearhead of the Indian challenge, as the team left in the early hours of Saturday.

India came arithmetically close to pipping Japan in the group for a berth in the final last time. The Indian camp felt relieved that the formidable Japan would not be there again, having already made it to the higher echelons of the competition.

China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, New Zealand, Pacific Oceania, Thailand and Uzbekistan apart from India will be divided into two groups of five teams each, and the top team in each group after the round-robin league will qualify for the final.

The winner of the tournament will make it to the world group qualification ties to be played on a home and away basis in July.

With the field being so strong, it will require a supreme effort from the lesser ranked Indian players to win the tournament, but topping the group should be a practical target for the team, especially after its good showing last time in Osaka.

``We have all been playing tournaments and practising with good players. No match is going to be easy, but we look forward to winning some. We should be ready once we reach there and study the conditions'', said the 24-year-old Nirupama, who played in Dubai last week, after resting back home in Coimbatore for five weeks.

The rest of the Indian players, Manisha Malhotra, Sai Jayalakshmy and Rushmi Chakravarthi have all been keeping themselves busy with five weeks of tennis on the trot in Australia, and thus should be sharp. The results have not been encouraging in singles, except for Manisha who has been making the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Yet, the results in recent competitions apart, the Indian players, all in the same age group, have the potential to come good if they sport a little more self-belief.

This factor will hinge on how the captain of the team, Enrico Piperno, handles the team.

The erstwhile Indian Davis Cup team coach, who spends about 20 weeks with Mahesh Bhupathi in the men's circuit every year, was honest in admitting that he had to judge the players and the opposition first hand, for the first time.

``I have no expectations. I will do my best. All the girls have been playing tournaments, so they are all sharp. The effort would be to get them together as a team. It will be tough to do anything in one week. Looking at the overall good performance of the Indian girls in tournaments at home and abroad, I feel that they deserve coaching support at least for a few weeks in a season'', said Piperno.

Observing that he had got over the disappointment of not being part of the Davis Cup team any more, Piperno said that he had some good memories from his 10-year stint with the team as its coach.

``I have got over Davis Cup. I can look back with a lot of satisfaction, as the team had some memorable performances. Being with the Fed Cup team is a new challenge, and I will try my best'', said Piperno, who also runs a training centre in Calcutta with another former Davis Cup coach Akhtar Ali.

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