Sania Mirza to head Indian challenge

Sania Mirza will spearhead the Indian challenge in the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania group ‘II’ tennis competition scheduled to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from February 4 to 8.

The former world No. 27 singles star, Sania had skipped the last edition owing to injury and the rest, headed by Kyra Shroff, could not prevent India from being relegated from group ‘I’ to group ‘II’.

Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombare and Rishika Sunkara will be the other members of the team.

Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan and Vietnam will be the other teams in the fray in group ‘II’, from which only one team will qualify for group ‘I’.

The teams will be divided into four groups and the toppers of each group will compete in the knock-out for the solitary qualification berth.

Myneni drafted in

Meanwhile, the selectors had earlier picked the men’s Davis Cup team, by drafting Saketh Myneni into the squad apart from recalling doubles star Rohan Bopanna, while Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri were automatic choices for the two singles slots.

The teams :

Davis Cup : Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Rohan Bopanna, Saketh Myneni. Reserves : Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Sanam Singh. Invitee : R. Ramkumar. Captain : Anand Amritraj; Coach : Zeeshan Ali.

Fed Cup : Sania Mirza, Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombare, Rishika Sunkara. Reserves : Shweta Rana, Prerna Bhambri. Captain : Enrico Piperno; Coach : Shalini Thakur.