Karman's tame defeat puts India under pressure against China

Karman Kaur Thandi struggled to execute her game as Yafan Wang walked away with an easy straight sets win to give China a 1-0 lead over India in the Asia/Oceania Group I Fed Cup tie here today.
The gulf between the players was evident as Wang struck the ball with authority while Karman's game was littered with errors as she lost the first match of the tournament 2-6 2-6 to Wang, ranked 125.
The onus to bring India back in the contest is now on the country's top singles player Ankita Raina, who is up against world number 125 Lin Zhu.

The Chinese team arrived here only Tuesday morning but Wang still managed to adjust to the bounce of the Centre court and the conditions.
Wang is coming to the Fed Cup after a semifinal finish at the WTA Taipei Open, where she lost the last-four match to world number 45 Timea Babos after beating Eugeni Bouchard.
It was the second meeting between Karman, ranked 284, and Wang, who now leads the head-to-head 2-0, having won the first match during the Tianjin ITF event last year.

Wang stamped her superiority from the beginning as she broke Karman in the very first game of the match.

Karman tried too hard and even changed the tactics by approaching the net but Wang was up to the task as the Chinese found easy passing winners and forcing the Indian to retreat.
The 19-year-old Karman, coached by Aditya Sachdeva, lacked variety and tactics to tackle a wily opponent, who has played Grand Slam qualifiers.
Twice, Karman had chance to break her opponent second game of opening set and sixth of second but could not take her chances.
Karman's serve was good only in patches as she served five double faults. In the few rallies also it was the Chinese who handled the points well.

Karman's unending unforced errors never let her come back in the match and one such long backhand ended her struggle on the court.