On Thursday, one of the Billie Jean King Cup elimination tournaments in women's tennis starts in Radom. Teams of Poland, Ukraine and Switzerland will perform. Only one of the teams will advance to the finals planned on September 16-21 in Chinese Shenzhen.
White and red will play without Iga Świątek. Lack of the presence of the runner -up of the ranking is a big weakening of our staff. “I made a difficult decision. I know that this is not information that fans wanted, especially Polish, but it is a decision just for me at the moment,” wrote Świątek.
The second rocket of the world has a difficult period behind her – this year did not come to any finale, changed the coach, previously she had to deal with the doping case, suspension, losing in the semi -final of the Games or hate that met her on the internet.
Americans without stars
The second week of April is the date when other Billie Jean King Cup qualification tournaments are also played. As we checked, a similar decision as Iga Świątek made more leading tennis players in the world. The last message comes from Jessica Peguli.
The American, who won the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston a few days ago, was previously in the final of the WTA 1000 event in Miami, she withdrew the national team, which in Bratislava will play with Denmark and Slovakia. The American team is extremely weak – both the third pegula and the fourth Coco Gouff and the fifth Madison Keys will not perform. The latter won in January in the Grand Slam Australian Open.
In this situation, USA Captain Lindsay Davenport had to establish an experimental composition: Hailey Baptiste (86. WTA), Alycia Parks (54.), Bernard Pera (76) and leading deblists of the world Asia Muhammad and Desirae Krawczyk. There will also be no 11 in the ranking of Emmy Navarro and 16 Amandy Anisimova, who recently won a great competition in Dosze.
In Ostrava, Czeszki cannot count on Karolina Muchova and Barbora Krejcikova. In their absence, Linda Noskova will be the leader of the national team. The housewives will play with the Spanish (without an injured Paula Badosa) and with Brazil, led by Beatriz Haddad-Maia.
In the Hague, the favorites of the elimination tournament will be British, but they have to do without Emma Raducan, who withdrew a few days ago due to the last weaker results. Her team will face the Germans and Dutch.
Rybakina except
Housewives will compete in Australian Brisbane, but without support from Daria Kasatkina. 14. The world's rocket has been represented by Australia for a week, but there is no consent of the tennis authorities to start in the team after she played for Russia earlier. Australians will compete with Kazaszki, headed by Jelena Rybakina and Colombies. In the team from South America at the last moment there was a change – the leader Camila Osorio withdrew, who won the WTA 250 tournament in Bogota a few days ago, and defeated Katarzyna Kawa in the final.
Japanese in the fight against Canada and Romania will have to cope without Naomi Osaka, and the Swiss in Radom without Belinda Benć, who did well in subsequent tournaments after returning after the birth of a child, but needs a moment of respite.
Resignations also apply to a lower level of struggle in BJKC. Jelena Ostapenko withdrew the competition in the Euro-African zone. Her team Latvia is to play with Austria, Croatia and Portugal. Croats cannot count on the Olympic runner -up from Paris, Donna Vekić. Greeks will have to deal with Belgium and Hungary without Maria Sakkari.
This is not the end. Among the leading tennis players of the world are also those that for other reasons do not participate in the next days in representative struggles. Jasmine Paolini is free, because the Italian defends the title and has a start in the finals of Billie Jean King Cup. Similarly, Qinwen Zheng is not playing in the squad, because Chinese as housewives are already some performance in Shenzhen.
In turn, Russian Mirrir Andrejew, Diana Sznajder, Ludmiła Samsonowa and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenek have no way to perform, because their national teams have been suspended in all representative competitions since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine – also the male Davis Cup or the Women's -Męga -Męga United Cup.
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The effect is that only Jelena Rybakina (10th) will play this week from the leading “10” ranking in the national team this week. From the top “20” three tennis players – in addition to Kazaszka, also Brazilian Beatriz Haddad -Maia (17.) and Ukrainian Elina Switolina (18.)
This, of course, makes the rank of the BJKC tournament decreases. The authorities responsible for the event of the International Tennis Federation have something to think about. The trouble is that the WTA calendar is so constructed that tennis players are simply difficult to reconcile the fight for points to the ranking with starts in the national team. Fatigue only accumulates.
How to advance to the finals?
Meanwhile, from Monday, another important WTA 500 rank competitions are starting in Stuttgart. At the start, almost all the biggest stars, headed by Świątek and Sabalenka. A surprising decision was made in this regard by Rybakin, who defends the title in Germany. Not only that he will play for Kazakhstan at the other end of the world in Australia, she has not yet decided to fly to Stuttgart. It is already known that the tournament will have a new champion.
The scale of the withdrawal and resignation of leading players also sheds new light on the decision of Iga Świątek about the lack of performance in Radom. Experts and fans may regret that our best tennis player has decided to skip the match of the national team, but when we look more widely at the head of the WTA, it is even better to see that this is not an isolated or unique movement.
The most regret of our team, which in the Radom hall will be composed of: Magda Linette, Martyna Kubka, Katarzyna Kawa and Maja Chwalińska. Favorites for promotion will be Ukrainian women in this situation, including with Elina Switolina and Marta Kostiuk. How to surprise and fight effectively for promotion to the finals?
On Thursday, Polish tennis players need a victory over Switzerland, which can be easier because rivals without Belinda Benć seem to be within the range of Polish women. Magda Linette will probably face Victoria in the leader's clash, then maybe Katarzyna Kawa, who recently flashed so beautifully in the single at the tournament in Bogota.
On the other hand, the question of how physically ready for intensive effort, in Colombia, she spent over 17 hours in seven meetings in Colombia, she has a journey from South America behind her, and we also need it in a possible doubles clash, because she is our best deblist, which she proved even in November during the finals of BJKC in Malaga. Polish women then reached the semi -final.
In the case of winning with the Swiss for promotion, we will fight on Friday with Ukrainians. At the end of Saturday, Switzerland will play with Ukraine. All meetings start at 15:00. Broadcasts in Polsat Sport.