Ankita Raina played hard but could not stop Japan from registering a 3-0 victory in the league match of the Asia-Oceania Billie Jean King Cup women’s tennis tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
Ankita went down fighting 2-6, 7-5, 3-6 to the 136th ranked Uchijima.
Japan was comfortably on top of the table among the six teams, competing on a round-robin format. China beat Thailand 3-0 to keep its qualification aspirations alive after having been shocked by Korea earlier.
India will play Korea in the last league match. Having beaten Thailand and Uzbekistan, India stays safe in the group, and would be playing for pride against Korea, which has a slightly better record in terms of sets and games.
The results (league):
Japan bt India 3-0 (Mai Hontama bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-1, 6-0; Moyuka Uchijima bt Ankita Raina 6-2, 5-7, 6-3; Shuko Aoyama & Eri Hozumi bt Vaidehi Chaudhari & Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-3, 6-4).