Austria’s tennis women gave a strong sign of life in the Billie Jean King Cup with the 3:2 home win in Schwechat over the favorite Latvians. Although the star of the Baltic women, the former Grand Slam winner Jelena Ostapenko (world rankings 18th), was unbeatable for both Tamira Paszek and Sinja Kraus in singles, the ÖTV women each beat the Latvian understudy. The doubles of Melanie Klaffner and Kraus finally fixed the promotion to the qualifying round of the Billie Jean King Cup against Otapenko and Diana Marcinkevica with 7: 5, 6: 3, in which you played on 14./15. April meets record winner USA away. The selection of ÖTV captain Marion Maruska took advantage of the moment after having to play in the lower regions of the traditional competition for many years.
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Austria has never been in the qualifying round, which has only existed in this form since 2020. For the first time since 2008, when the ÖTV women lost two international matches in what was then world group II, the ÖTV team has the chance to advance to the highest level of this traditional competition. “That was great publicity for women’s tennis”, Maruska said jubilantly, emphasizing the team spirit. Reservist Barbara Haas was also responsible for this.
Djokovic chases Federer record
At the ATP Finals in Turin today, Novak Djokovic’s hunt for his sixth title in the end-of-year tournament for the top eight players begins with his opening game against Stefanos Tsitsipas. So far only Roger Federer has achieved so many. “That’s one of my biggest goals”, says Djokovic. In the other group, Casper Ruud won 7: 6 (4), 6: 4 against Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Source: Nachrichten
