Surprising, but all the more beautiful: Instead of descent, the German Fed Cup team is now looking forward to a home game in Karolina Plikova, Petra Kvitova and Co.
It was really a battle for every point. And until the last second. But at the end of two dramatic, nerve-wracking Fed Cup days in Minsk, Germany had the final word – and had entered the semi-finals of the Nations’ Cup in the role of the courageous outsider:”Honestly. I don’t know what to say anymore. I don’t know what to say,”said the new team boss Jens Gerlach after a hard-fought 3-2 win in Belarus.
The 2018 season’s winners and semi-finalists were all in the DTB selection, but the decisive third point was due to the double pairing of Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Tatjana Maria, who won the match 6:7,7:5 and 6:4 against Aryna Sabalenka and Lidsija Marosava with the converted fifth match ball to ensure the unexpected success.”That’s what they are. It just feels great now,”said veteran Anna-Lena Grönefeld.
Germany was without its nominally strongest players, Angelique Kerber and Julia Görges. The reward for the away coup is now a real Fed Cup hit against the dominating team of the last few years, against the Czech Republic – on the 21st of September. and 22. April. It would be conceivable to have three current top ten players, namely Kerber and Görges for Germany and Karolina Pliskova for the Czech Republic. The two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova would presumably add to this, who has contributed significantly to the great successes of the Czech women in the recent past. Between 2011 and 2016 alone, the team won the trophy five times, and 2014 in Prague against Germany.
“It’s a great prospect to be able to play this match in the semi-finals – and not to think about relegation,”said Tatiana Maria, who led Germany 2-1 on the second day of the competition in Minsk with a 6-4,5-7,6-0 win over Vera Lapko. Afterwards Antonia Lottner lost the last singles 3:6,7:5 and 2:6 against Sabalenka – it was 2:2, the doubles had to decide. But just like the German men in Australia last week, the DTB women also kept their nerves in the critical moments and were able to cope with the misfortune of having to play three match points in a row at the score of 5:4 and 40:0 in the third set of the doubles. Even the fourth victory point was not enough, Maria made a double mistake.
But the two experienced Germans didn’t let the fifth chance pass unused, the small sensation in Belarus was perfect “It was, first and foremost, a victory of a committed team. And it was also a victory of the right mentality”, said Gerlach, the successor of the long-time team boss Barbara Rittner,”we believed in our chance in every second of this match”.