Prarthana Thombare and Ankita Raina today lost their singles matches as India suffered their first ever defeat at the hands of Hong Kong to remain in Group II in the Asia/Oceania competition in Fed Cup.
The 1-2 defeat was India's first against Hong Kong in five meetings and it has ended country's hopes to get promoted to Group I for next year's competition.
404th ranked Prarthana, who had so far won all her matches, lost 2-6 1-6 to unranked Eudice Chong in the first singles.
The onus to bring India back was on country's number one singles player Ankita Raina but she lost 4-6 3-6 to Liang Ling Zhang, placed 88 places below the Indian in the WTA rankings.
Ankita and Rishika Sunkara then reduced the defeat margin by winning the dead doubles rubber 6-2 6-1 against Kwan Yau NG and Ho Ching Wu.
