New Zealand fight hard in 2-1 loss to India at Billie Jean King Cup

New Zealand will drop down to Asia Oceania Group 2 for 2023 after losing 2-1 to India in their fourth tie at the Billie Jean King Cup in Antalya in Turkey.

Marina Erakovic’s team fought hard against the higher ranked Indian team but defeats in both singles rubbers meant the ensured New Zealand would join Indonesia in dropping out of Group 1. New Zealand has one final tie against Indonesia tomorrow.

Valentina Ivanov played the opening singles rubber against India’s number 2 Rutuja Bhosale and after a slow start, served twice for the second set at 5-4 and 6-5 before losing 6-1 7-6 (3) in an hour and 20 minutes.

It was then up to Kiwi number one Paige Hourigan to try to keep New Zealand alive in the tie and tournament. She played her best match of the tournament against Ankita Raina but succumbed 7-5 6-3 in an hour and 34 minutes.

Hourigan was able to put behind the disappointment when she teamed up with Erin Routliffe for the dead rubber doubles. They secured New Zealand’s first win of the tournament in convincing fashion 6-2, 6-0 in an hour and 3 minutes over Sowjanya Bavisetti and Riya Bhatia.

Captain Erakovic was disappointed they couldn't quite clinch the overall win.

"Yeah, absolutely. If we start off with Valentina, unfortunately, just didn't manage to get going until the second set. If she was able to get going a little bit sooner would have been an entirely different match. And she definitely had her chances in that second set. Paige played a pretty good match but just in some of those key moments  wasn't able to  play with as much depth on the ball as she was doing throughout. In the doubles it was obviously good to have that win with Paige and Erin who started to play really well. But yeah, it's just tough. We are in group one where it’s higher ranked good players and there’s a little bit of a gap that we need to reach. And obviously, it's going to be something that we'll have to work on next year.” Erakovic said.