Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 2: Bolstered by the return of ace player Sania Mirza and drawn into a relatively easy pool, India would aim to re-enter Group-I of the Asia/Oceania zone, when the Fed Cup begins here on Thursday.

India have been grouped with hosts Malaysia and Singapore, who do not boast of any top-class players.

Winners of both the pools competing in the Asia/Oceania zone Group-II will clash in the play-off tie to decide which nation is promoted to Group-I.

India will play their first rubber on Thursday. India were relegated to Group-II last year after being blanked 0-3 by Taiwan in play-off tie of women’s team event.

Sania had pulled put of the tournament in 2009 citing an abdominal injury and also did not play in 2008.

Now that she is back with the team and the opponents are weak, India coach Enrico Piperno says they have a good opportunity to get back to Group-I from where they can strive to earn a place in the World Group. "Absolutely we have a chance. The team is quite motivated. We are in the right group. Kyrgyzstan and Hong Kong are on the other side. This is best we can expect. I am quite confident since Sania is back with the team. She wants to play and help India get back to Group-I. There is experienced Rushmi (Chakravarthy) and Sanaa (Bhambri) is also there. The team are excited," Piperno said.

Piperno also believes that personal setbacks would not affect Sania’s on-court performance as she recently ended her engagement with Sohrab Mirza. "Not at all, she is upbeat and quite keen to play. She has been practising hard for the last three days. The whole team practised in two sessions everyday," Piperno said.

The coach also said that youngster Poojashree Venkatesha will get her debut. The selectors had rewarded Poojashree for her brilliant performance last year in which she won four ITF Futures titles out of five finals.

Veteran Rushmi Chakravarthy, experienced Sanaa Bhambri and young Ankita Raina and Shivika Burman are the other members of the squad.

Last year, India lost all their four ties to be relegated, and Sanaa says Sania’s absence played a role in that. — PTI

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Humpy, Sandipan among 11 leaders

Gibraltar: Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy outplayed Azerbaijan GM Namig Guliyev with an attacking game in the seventh round for a share of the top spot in the Gibetelecom Masters chess tournament here. Another Indian and overnight joint leader Sandipan Chanda settled for a draw with German GM Jan Gustafsson to be among 11 players on top with 5.5 points each.

The other nine players in joint lead are Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, Michael Adams of England, Laurent Fressinet of France, Natalia Zhukov of Ukraine, Stelios Halkias of Greece, Gustafsson, Chanda, Humpy and Americans Alex Lenderman and Gata Kamsky. — PTI

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Mahindra United bow out of finals

New Delhi: Mahindra United bowed out of the Nike-Manchester United Premier Cup Under-15 India-leg football finals going down 0-2 to Sikkim FC in their concluding group match at the Duler ground, Mapuca, in Panaji on Tuesday.

Mahindra, who were held 1-1 by Dempo SC in the day’s opening match, failed to get going against Sikkim, for whom Tilak Subba scored in the 19th minute before Bidhan Lepcha added the second in the 36th minute.

The other Mumbai team, MSSA too were sent packing, going down to JCT 0-5 in their last Group A clash. The highlight of JCT’s victory was three goals by Jatinder Singh. JCT together with Shillong from Group A and Kalyani MSA and Sikkim FC from Group B have made it to the semifinals.