Billie Jean King Cup: Tamira Paszek opens against Jelena Ostapenko
Tamira Paszek will open the encounter with Latvia against Jelena Ostapenko for Austria. The second single contests Sinja Kraus against Daniela Vismane, as the draw in the Multiversum Schwechat showed.
by p.m
last edit:
Nov 10, 2022, 06:06 pm
The cat is out of the bag! ÖTV team captain Marion Maruska officially announced her team line-up for the Billie Jean King Cup against Latvia on Thursday morning at the Official Draw in the Schwechater Multiversum. The Lower Austrian relies on Sinja Kraus and Tamira Paszek in the first home game for the Alpstar Austria Billie Jean King Cup team since 2008, when they were relegated from what was then World Group II. While Kraus, as the Austrian number one in the team, was considered seeded due to the absence of Julia Grabher, Maruska Paszek, as nominal number three, gave preference to Barbara Haas (WTA 396), at least on the first day of the game. If the surprise win against the Baltic women is successful, the ÖTV women would qualify for the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals 2023 in the spring.
The second day starts with a one-on-one duel between Kraus and Ostapenko
Paszek was also nominated and traveled to the Europe/Africa Group 1 matches in the Turkish province of Antalya in April this year, but did not play. That will change on Friday when the 31-year-old from Vorarlberg will serve for Austria for the first time since February 2017. The two-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist and former world number 26. (current WTA ranking: 492) will, as the draw showed, open the international match and will probably have to use all her class and routine to make Latvia's top star Jelena Ostapenko (WTA 18) falter. It starts at 12:45 p.m. (from 12:40 p.m. live on ORF SPORT+ and oetv.tv). The second singles game between Kraus (WTA 197) and Latvia's number two Daniela Vismane (WTA 266) follows immediately afterwards.
The line-ups for the second day may be changed up to one hour before the start of the game. According to the current status, Kraus will open against Ostapenko on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. (from 10:55 a.m. live on ORF SPORT+ and oetv.tv). In the fourth singles game, Paszek and Vismane would come in, Melanie Klaffner and Kraus were provisionally called up for doubles against Diana Marcinkevica and 15-year-old Beatrise Zeltina. In contrast to the Davis Cup for men, the doubles in the Billie Jean King Cup is not played as the third match, but as the last. If it is 3:0 for one of the two teams after the first three games, the doubles will be played as "dead rubber" (with a match tie-break up to ten points in the third set). If, on the other hand, the fourth singles game is decisive and it should be 3:1 for one of the teams, the two teams and the ITF referee decide whether the doubles will still be played.