India beat Indonesia 2-1 to secure themselves a first-ever spot in the playoffs of the Fed Cup. Ankita Raina won a crucial singles tie against Aldila Sutjiadi before teaming up with Sania Mirza to win the doubles match and put India through to the playoffs that take will place in April.
India started with a loss in the tie with Rutuja Bhosale losing her singles match 3-6, 6-0, 3-6 to Priska Madelyn Nugroho in a match that lasted one hour and 43 minutes in Dubai.
Ankita, who is India’s top-ranked singles player, had lost her previous two singles matches. On Saturday, however, she dominated the second singles bout of the tie, beating Aldila Sutjiadi 6-3 6-3 to level things up for India.
She then teamed up with Sania against Nugroho and Sutjiadi in the decisive doubles fixture. The pair got off to a sluggish start and the Indonesians raced to a 4-1 lead. However, they came back to force the set into a tie-breaker which they won 7-4. Sania and Ankita then raced to victory in the second set, taking it 6-0.
India had started the Group stage with a defeat to China but have since gone on to win four matches in a row. They thus finish second and will face either the Netherlands or Latvia in April.