Sania spearheads Fed Cup squad

April 20, 2006

Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi will launch India's Fed Cup campaign in the Asia-Oceania zonal qualifying tie in Seoul, Korea, starting today.

India take on Philippines in their opening match and follow it up with matches against Chinese Taipei on Thursday and New Zealand on Friday in Pool 'B'.

Against Philippines, world number 180 rpt 180 Shikha Uberoi will play the opening singles against 16-year old Denise Dy, ranked 1112.

Sania, India's number one player with a world ranking of 40, faces the 673rd ranked Czarina-Mae Arevalo in the second singles.

Coach and captain Enrico Piperno said he chose to play Sania, who is carrying injuries to her wrist and elbow in the serving arm besides an hyperextension of the lower back, so as to give her some valuable match practice ahead of the crucial encounter against Chinese Taipei.

"Ideally I would have liked not to play Sania against Philippines, but she has not played a match in the last 10 days," Piperno told reporters from Seoul.

"Thursday's tie against Chinese Taipei is the key because they have two top-200 players. So I told Sania that it would be better for her to get some match practice."