TENNIS | Captain Uppal wants India to be ambitious and fearless

India captain Vishal Uppal desires his gamers to take a fearless method within the Billie Jean King Cup playoffs which commences right here on Friday. 

The likes of Sahaja Yamalapalli, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, Ankita Raina and others will face powerful competitors from Slovenia and Netherlands, however Uppal locations immense religion in his crew. 

“We wish to take the courtroom with the precise vitality and take the combat to our opponents. Our opponents are a lot greater ranked, however we just like the underdog story. I need my workforce to be bold, be fearless,” Uppal informed The Hindu on the sidelines of a coaching session on the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium right here. 

India captain Uppal with workforce members throughout a coaching session forward of the Billie Jean King Cup Play-offs 2025, scheduled from November 14–16, on the S.M. Krishna Tennis Stadium in Bengaluru. 
| Photograph Credit score:
Okay. MURALI KUMAR

Uppal was the captain when India reached the playoffs for the very first time, in 2020. To make it this far once more in a brief interval reveals that Indian girls’s tennis is on the up and up, Uppal stated. 

“It reveals you that girls’s tennis in India is heading the precise means. Now we have to get extra bold to transcend the playoffs. It is extremely essential to proceed on the journey to rising the game in India,” the previous males’s nationwide champion and Davis Cup participant stated. 

Uppal will not be averse to creating daring line-up adjustments, as seen within the earlier spherical (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I). “I’m fairly positive nobody in Indian tennis would have imagined that Ankita is not going to play a singles match in Pune.

“However I had give you this technique after I studied the opponents and match-ups. The nice factor was that the entire workforce was on board with the plan,” Uppal stated.