New Delhi , December 21 : Sania Mirza will lead a four-member Indian team at the Asia/Oceania Group I of Fed Cup event to be held at Hua Hin, Thailand during the first week of February next year . The Indian team comprised of Ankita Raina, Prerna Bhambri, Prarthana Thombre and Karman Kaur Thandi(reserve).
The All India Tennis Association selection Committee chaired by Mr. S P Misra announced the team today in New Delhi . The meeting was also attended by Mr Balram Singh and Mr Rohit Rajpal.
The Committee also selected the team for the upcoming South Asian Games which is scheduled to be held in Guwahati from 7th to 11th Feb 2016. The team comprises of Saketh Myneni, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Sanam Singh, Vijay Sundar Prasanth, Purav Raja, Divij Sharan, and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan(reserve).
Sania led from the front to help India defeat Phillipines 2-1 in the final of the Asia/Oceania group II in Hyderabad. India’s Prarthana G Thombre had defeated Anna Clarice Patrimonio 6-3 6-1 in the first singles . Sania won the doubles rubber 6-3 6-3 accompanying Thombre.
The Fed cup launched in 1963 is the world’s largest annual international team event in womens sport with as well as 99 nations participating in 2015.
The tournament will be held on a Round-robin basis. Two pools of four teams (Pools A & B) will take part . The winners of each pool will play-off against each other to determine which nation will advance to the World Group II play-offs in April 2016.
In the positional play-offs the nations finishing in second and third position will play for positional play-off (A2 v B2 and A3 v B3). The nations in fourth position will play-off against each other to determine which nation will be relegated to Asia/Oceania Zone Group II in 2017.
Earlier it was decided unanimously by the member countries of South Asian Olympic Council to include tennis to the existing 22 disciplines at a meeting chaired by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President N Ramachandran. The Annual General Body Meeting of the Indian Olympic Association will be held on December 23 in Guwahati.