The German tennis players want to qualify for the finals in the Billie Jean King Cup in the Netherlands. But after the first duel, this seems increasingly unlikely.
The German tennis players are on the verge of being eliminated in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifier after suffering an opening defeat against the Netherlands. Captain Rainer Schüttler’s team lost 0-3 to the hosts and now need a minor miracle to advance to the final round.
First, Jule Niemeier lost her singles match against world no. 265 Eva Vedder in The Hague with a very weak performance, 3-6, 1-6. Then Tatjana Maria had to admit defeat in a much better and competitive match against Suzan Lamens, 6-3, 3-6, 5-7. And in the doubles, Laura Siegemund and Anna-Lena Friedsam also failed to win their match, losing 6-7 (5-7), 5-7 to Lamens and Demi Schuurs.
Schüttler had opted against nominating Eva Lys for the match against the Netherlands, and the German number one cheered on from the stands with a thick scarf wrapped around her neck.
Clear victory against Great Britain is a must for the last chance
In order to still have a chance of qualifying as the best of the three teams for the final round in Shenzhen, China, in mid-September, the German team now has to win 3-0 against the favored Great Britain on Friday. To do that, they also need the British team to win against the Netherlands on Saturday.
Should the German Tennis Federation team miss out on qualifying for the finals, they will face relegation in the playoffs in November.
Too many mistakes from Niemeier
Niemeier started nervously, lost her first service game and conceded a total of four breaks in the opening set. The former Wimbledon quarter-finalist dictated the pace of the rallies, but made too many easy mistakes. In the next round, nothing went right. “She just played better in the second,” said Niemeier. The 25-year-old from Dortmund argued with the referee at times and had to admit defeat after 83 minutes.
The 37-year-old Maria was on the court for much longer. In the deciding set of the evenly matched match, she was already trailing 4-5 with a break, but fought back again. However, Maria immediately gave up her serve again, and a last attempt to fight back was in vain. “It was definitely tough for the team that we didn’t get the point,” she said.
