Billie Jean King Cup: Kerber and the Porsche Team Germany want to fight for every point
The Porsche Team Germany contests the final of the Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas from November 1st to 6th in Prague with a mixture of veterans and hopeful young players.
by PM
last edit: Oct 30, 2021, 10:04 pm
The number 1 of the team is Porsche brand ambassador Angelique Kerber. For them, the conclusion of the most prestigious team competition in women's tennis is one of the highlights of the season. "We are in a very strong group with the Czech Republic and Switzerland and certainly not the top favorites," said the three-time Grand Slam winner before the first serve in the Czech capital. “But we're going into this final round very positively and will fight for every point. Nothing is impossible."
In addition to Angelique Kerber, national coach Rainer Schüttler has nominated Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Friedsam as well as Nastasja Schunk and Jule Niemeier from the Porsche Talent Team for Porsche Team Germany, which qualified for Prague in February 2020 with a victory in Brazil. The final of the former Fed Cup will be held in this form for the first time - twelve teams, four groups, round robin mode.
Andrea Petkovic is playing for Germany for the 18th time
With 17 appointments since 2007, when she was on 21./22. Andrea Petkovic is the most experienced player in the Porsche Team Germany. In August, she won her seventh WTA single title in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and then celebrated the first WTA double success of her career at the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic. Angelique Kerber has played 15 times for Germany so far, the first time on 14/15. July 2007 in Toyota in a 3-2 win against Japan in the World Group Playoffs. The two-time winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix won the premiere of the Bad Homburg Open, supported by Porsche, this summer and reached the semifinals in Wimbledon as well as in the WTA1000 tournament in Cincinnati. She also had a strong performance at the US Open. Anna-Lena Friedsam has played once for the Porsche Team Germany so far, on 7/8. February 2020 in a 4-0 win against Brazil in Florianopolis. This year she won her second WTA double title in Nur-Sultan / Kazakhstan after 2019 when she won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart together with Mona Barthel.
“We caught a real hammer group. Even if two of the top Czech players have canceled, they are still in a very good position, "said Andrea Petkovic. However, the Porsche Team Germany does not see them without a chance: “In Angie and me we have two players who can always cause a surprise. Angie played a very good second half of the season and I also had a very good year. We want to go far and we definitely think we have chances. But we are already aware that we have caught the toughest group of all. "
"Jule and Nasti had a fantastic summer"
Nastasja Schunk and Jule Niemeier make their debut with Porsche Team Germany in the final round of the Billie Jean King Cup. The young players, who are promoted in the Porsche Talent Team and prepared for a professional career, recommended themselves with strong performances for the appointment to the team of Rainer Schüttler. This year, 18-year-old Nastasja Schunk celebrated the greatest success of her young career to date by reaching the junior women's final at Wimbledon. In addition, she won two of the most important ITF tournaments. At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix she sniffed WTA air for the first time, at the WTA tournament in Karlsruhe she reached the quarter-finals. Her teammate Jule Niemeier, who is four years older than her, made it to the semi-finals at the WTA tournaments in Hamburg and Strasbourg. "Jule and Nasti had a fantastic summer," said Rainer Schüttler. "You have made incredible progress this year."
The Porsche Team Germany already faces strong opponents in the group stage in the Prague O2 Arena. In Group D, Angelique Kerber and her teammates will meet the Czech Republic on November 1st and Switzerland on November 2nd. The hosts have won the unofficial world championship title in women's tennis six times since 2011 - in 2014 in the final against Porsche Team Germany, for which Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic were also active at the time. Again this year they belong to the closer circle of favorites in front of the home crowd, although with Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova, both former winners of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, two of their top stars will not be there. But with the current French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova and her doubles partner Katerina Siniakova, who won gold in doubles at the Olympics in Tokyo, they still have absolute world-class players in their ranks. Belinda Bencic, the number 1 Swiss woman, also became an Olympic champion in Japan.