Billie Jean King Cup: Zeel Desai & Sahaja Yamalapalli keep India’s playoff hopes alive, crush Mongolia 6-0, 6-0

India enjoyed a dominant day at the office as Zeel Desai secured a straight-sets victory on her Billie Jean King Cup debut against 15-year-old Anu-Vjin Gantor while Sahaja Yamalapalli followed suit, winning without dropping a game to seal the tie against Mongolia in the Asia/Oceania Group I on Friday.

Zeel drubbed her rival 6-0, 6-0 in mere 37 minutes before Sahaja Yamlapalli trounced 32-year-old Jargal Altansarnai by an identical scoreline in 42 minutes at DLTA Complex.

It was not more than a casual hitting session for the home players as unranked rival players did not have the game to hurt them.

India take on Korea on Saturday, the final day of the competition, in their last outing of the tournament, and most likely, the hosts will keep their place in Group I.

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The defeat against Thailand put India in a spot as it hurt their chances to finish in top-two. The top two sides in the six-team event will progress to play-offs while the bottom two will be relegated to Group II.

Considering the inexperience of Gantor, who has managed to win just one game so far in the tournament, India captain Vishal Uppal didn't mind putting in Desai, giving her some match practice.

Clearly, the unranked Gantor is not yet ready to play at this level. She has a lot to learn but such defeats can be demoralising too. Putting an uncooked player at this level could only be because of lack of options.

Gantor hardly won a point on her own. Only when Zeel made an unforced error, the Mongolian had a point to her name.

The Mongolian teenager seemed to have no will to fight, having resigned herself instead. She could not return properly as the balls consistently flew outside the lines, reducing it to a drab affair.

The India camp won't complain, considering that they need to win this tie against Mongolia and against Korea on Saturday to somehow keep play-offs chances alive.

Later, Sahaja also won without fuss. It was the same story, as there was no fight at all. Winning a game was a struggle for Jargal, leave alone testing the Indian, ranked 385.