The chance for the world group play-off in November was taken away from Marion Maruska’s team on Friday after the two individual duels against Croatians. First Sinja Kraus lost against Donna Vekic 5:7 3:6, then Julia Grabher was against Croatia’s world number 60. Petra Martic had no chance and lost to her 2:6 4:6. “It was really very close. I gave everything and of course I’m a bit disappointed, especially because I had chances,” said 19-year-old Kraus after her defeat.
Grabher, who beat Zidansek for the first time on Tuesday, was less than happy with her performance. “Unfortunately, I didn’t start well, a little cautiously, and my opponent, on the other hand, started very aggressively and basically played very intelligently, she took the ball early and stole the time from me. In the second set I felt better, adjusted better to the game and had my chances. It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to use them.”
In the final – sportingly meaningless – doubles, Barbara Haas/Melanie Klaffner lost the first set 5:7 against Petra Marcinko/Tara Wurth. After that, however, the Croatians gave up, which was the point of honor for red-white-red. “Wurth twisted his ankle at the last point. She’s had a tape up before and then gave up. Unfortunately, that meant there was only one set that we could play,” said Haas.
Achieved minimum goal of staying up
The ÖTV women missed a top two place in their group, which would have kept their hopes of promotion towards the world group alive. However, captain Marion Maruska’s team had already stayed up in Europe-Africa Group 1 with victories against Bulgaria, Georgia and Sweden as third in the pool.
Despite the defeat, Maruska was not dissatisfied with Friday’s individual matches: “Those were two very close matches, both of which could have been a bit more, especially with Sinja. Our girls actually both played really well. Even if they lost it, it was two good performances,” praised the ÖTV captain. Kraus, ranked 402nd, also took positive stock. “We can all be really proud of ourselves, we did a great job all week and I’m very grateful to be part of this team,” said the Viennese.
Grabher and Co. will be in action one last time on Saturday: In a placement game from 9:00 a.m. CEST against host Turkey, third in Group A. “In the end, we achieved our goal of staying in the league. Now we have to see that we can find a nice finish tomorrow,” said ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer.
