Ankita Bhambri overcame a two hour and 15 minute rain delay to score a sensational first singles win against Indonesia's Sandy Gumulya to put India 1-0 up in the Fed Cup women's team tennis competition in New Delhi on Thursday.
Ankita was up a break, leading 6-4, 5-4 and on match point at 40-30 against Sandy when a swirl of wind forced suspension of play at the R K Khanna Stadium.
The heavy dust storm quickly gave way to thick drops of rain, leading to the stoppage.
The weather relented just enough for Ankita to wrap up the match in three minutes before another spell of rain forced a second suspension.
The Delhi lass showed little signs of nerve on resumption. Although her forehand sailed long for deuce, an inside out forehand gave her the advantage before a down the line winner gave her a 6-4, 6-4 victory.
Sania Mirza was to take on the 246th ranked Wynne Prakusy in the second singles. The doubles nomination featured Sania-Manisha Malhotra against Prakusya-Widjaja.
Captain Enrico Piperno stuck to his strategy of playing Ankita, the third best player, as number two while Indonesia missed the services of their top player, the 122 ranked Angelique Widjaja, who is struck by a knee injury, for the third day in running.
Ankita, whom Piperno termed as a revelation the other day once again played above herself to upset Sandy, ranked 496 on the WTA. She was confidence personified, and her grunting forehands set the tone for the day.
Even as the players held serve till 3-3 in the first set, Ankita kept forcing a series of errors by Sandy from the baseline.
The Indonesian opened the seventh game with a double fault before the Indian played a superb volley and followed it up with a fine overhead smash for a double break point. Sandy then failed to put away an easy volley to surrender the serve.
Ankita followed it up with a strong serving game but it was in the next game that her new level of self-belief was clear when she went for another break instead of relaxing on the narrow lead as she might have done before.
She kept moving Sandy around the court like a puppet on strings even as the Indonesian struggled to get her net play right.
Sandy, however, played an inspired second game to break Ankita in the second set but the latter was in no mood to be denied. A stunning forehand return of serve gave her the break point in the very next game and Sandy put a back hand went into the net to lose the advantage.
At 3-2, Sandy took a toilet break but Ankita did not lose her focus on resumption as she quickly erased the 0-30 deficit to hold serve.
She went on to force a double break point in the ninth game before a sharp cross court back hand from Sandy fell inches wide for the crucial break.
Ankita was down 0-30 serving for the match but three consecutive points gave her the match point before rain intervened.
Asked how she retained her focus after the interval, Ankita said she "did not think at all". "I was enjoying the time, chatting and eating with my teammates," she said.
The win avenged her defeat to Sandy in the US$ 10,000 event in January in Hyderabad. "Today I was confident. I was happy with my serving," said the 17-year old who was playing in her first Fed Cup.
"I did not expect to play this week at all, so to win matches feels great.
"I have played team events before but this is different. The whole country is backing you," she said.
The organisers were aiming to finish the second singles matches with a restart scheduled for 10.00 pm, weather permitting.
