The day after their early elimination against Italy, the German tennis women also lost the second preliminary round match at the final round of the Billie Jean King Cup in Seville. Captain Rainer Schüttler’s team had to admit defeat 3-0 against France – and had to travel home without winning a match.
First, Jule Niemeier lost 4:6, 3:6 against Clara Burel, a little later Tatjana Maria had to give up against Varvara Gracheva when she was leading 3:0 in the first set. In the final doubles, WTA Finals winner Laura Siegemund (Metzingen) lost alongside Dortmund’s Niemeier against France’s top player Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic 7:5, 3:6, 1:10.
Niemeier got into the game well in her opening match, but had too many problems with her service game, as she had all season. The 24-year-old made a total of 15 double faults and gave up her serve seven times in a real break festival.
Maria then only stood on the pitch for a few minutes. Despite a strong playing performance, the Bad Saulgau native did not make a good impression in terms of health. After a short conversation with team boss Schüttler, she finally abandoned the game, which was unimportant in terms of sport. Ex-player Andrea Petkovic spoke on the Tennis Channel about a pulled abdominal muscle that Maria had to struggle with.
At the final double, the spectators saw a balanced game at a decent level for a long time. In the match tiebreak, however, the French showed their full class and gave Siegemund/Niemeier no chance.
On Thursday, the selection of the German Tennis Federation (DTB) had already lost 3-0 at the start against Italy. Italy was the only team in the group of three to advance to the semi-finals on Saturday. The final at the Estadio de La Cartuja in the Andalusian capital takes place on Sunday.
“Of course that wasn’t the result we were hoping for,” said Schüttler after the clear defeat against Italy – they were “never satisfied” with a defeat. The two-time title holder Germany, which somewhat surprisingly qualified for the final round of the world’s best twelve teams in April, last reached the semi-finals of the prestigious national competition (formerly the Fed Cup) five years ago.
2023-11-10 13:58:00
#DTB #women #lose #France
