The New Zealand women's Fed Cup team were beaten 2-1 by Korea at the Asia/Oceania zone group one tennis match in New Delhi overnight (NZ time).
The loss follows yesterday's 3-0 defeat against Australia, and with just one tie remaining against Taiwan tonight (NZ time), New Zealand's chances of emulating
last year's feat in reaching the semifinals look very slim.
New Zealand opened the tie with a tight loss as Leanne Baker was defeated by Ye Ra Lee 4-6 6-3 6-4, then promising teenager Marina Erakovic then got the team back on track with a 6-1 6-4 victory over Jin-Hee Kim.
In the deciding doubles match sisters Eden and Paula Marama took the first set 6-2, but could not withstand the fightback from Kyung-Mi Chang and Jin-Hee Kim, who won the last two sets 6-3 7-5 sealing the tie.
New Zealand captain, Pavlina Nola knew that the team had let go a good chance at victory but felt that her players had competed well without gaining the final points required.
"I'm happy with how the girls played. The matches were so close and didn't go the way we wanted but we can take confidence from the way we played into the Taiwan tie," Nola said.
- NZPA
