NEW DELHI: Eurosport and Eurosport HD India will be telecasting Billie Jean Cup (BJK) Playoffs 2021 live in the country. In the playoffs, India will lock horns with Latvia, and this is for the first time that both these teams are facing each other in the competition.
Viewers in India can watch the game live on 16 April and 17 April from 8.30 PM and 4.30 PM IST respectively.
The Billie Jean King Cup, earlier known as the Fed Cup, is a team event for women’s tennis players and this is the first time that the Indian team has made it to the playoffs, courtesy of topping the Asia/Oceania Group 1 last year. A win will guarantee them a spot in the BJK Cup qualifiers for 2022 while the loser shall compete in their respective regional Group 1 event in 2022.
Six-time doubles grand slam champion Sania Mirza will be spearheading the team and will be accompanied by her teammates Ankita Raina, Rutuja Bhosale, Zeel Desai, and Karman Kaur Thandi. Ankita Raina will be the highest-ranked Indian on display in the tie with a singles rank of 174 and a doubles rank of 96. The team will be captained by former India player Vishal Uppal.
On the other hand, Latvia will be playing with a full-strength team headed by world no. 52 Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion along with Anastasija Sevastova, a former world no. 11 who is now ranked 47th in the world. Diana Marcinkevica, Daniela Vismane, and PatricijaSpaka complete the five-member squad of Latvia. The captain of the team will be former Latvian men’s player Adrians Zguns.
"Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world and has an ever-growing fan base in India for Women’s tennis. We are glad to have the opportunity to broadcast India’s BJK Cup playoffs which will add to our list of an interesting tennis line up. I am sure with stars like Sania Mirza and Ankita Raina in the mix it will be two days of hard-fought and exciting tennis action for our passionate viewers," said Eurosport India head & SVP - affiliate sales and product distribution, Asia - India sales & distribution at Discovery Inc Vijay Rajput.
Apart from BJK Cup, other tennis properties of Eurosport include the Australian Open, The Championships, Wimbledon, Roland-Garros, and US Open, and the ATP tour in 11 countries across Europe.
