India kickstarted their campaign with a 2-1 win over Thailand in the Billie Jean King Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 at the Mahalunge Balewadi Tennis Complex in Pune.
Veteran Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna outclassed the Korean pair of Seong Chan Hong and Hong Chung in straight sets to guide India to the Davis World Group Play-offs as the hosts took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Asia/Oceania Group I tie.
Shikha Uberoi and Sania Mirza scored straight set victories in the third and final pool engagement of the Fed Cup Tennis Asia/Oceania Zonal qualifying round.
India has the ability in all respects to be a great power and address our security challenges in the best national interests, says Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Ankita also shrugged off poor umpiring to emerge a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 winner in two hours and 25 minutes against a player, who was ranked as high as 27 last year and had beaten top-10 players.
Andreas Seppi experienced some early hiccups before getting past Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-4, 6-2 in the opening rubber, while 22-year-old Matteo Berrettini made a winning Davis Cup debut, cruising past India number one Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-4, 6-3.
A lanky Ramkumar cruised to a 7-5, 6-1, 6-0 win in exactly two hours in windy conditions at the Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi.
World No 15 India will now compete in the Zone Group action later this year.
These trips can be as short as a month to 45 days.