New Delhi, April 8 -- India's climb in the women's tennis team event-The Billie Jean King Cup, formerly known as Fed Cup-has been long and laboured. Since India started competing in the annual event regularly, beginning in 1991, they have spent a lot of time in the Asia-Oceania Group I, looking in at the world elite from the outside.

One of the primary reasons for this was that India rarely had more than one standout player at a time-while Nirupama Sanjeev, the first Indian woman to compete in the singles main draw of a Grand Slam, was the trailblazer in the 1990s, Sania Mirza's brilliance sustained the national team for a while in the 2000s.

But Sanjeev and Mirza's pioneering efforts have paved the way for the current generations. In 2...