Slovak female tennis players advanced to the Billie-Jean King Cup final tournament in Seville in November. In the qualifying match against Slovenia, they already lead 3:0 on the hard court in Bratislava’s NTC. The decisive third point for Slovak colors was earned by Renáta Jamrichová, who outclassed the Slovenian unit Veronika Erjavečová 6:2, 6:0 in the opening singles match on Saturday.
You could watch the Renáta Jamrichová – Veronika Erjavečová duel ONLINE at ŠPORT.sk>>
The Australian Open junior champion replaced the originally nominated Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. Since the introduction of the new format of the competition, Slovak women will appear in the final tournament for the third time. In 2021 in Prague and in November 2022 in Glasgow, they narrowly missed advancing to the semi-finals.
They recorded one win and one loss in the basic group. The defending champions from Canada, last year’s finalists from Italy, home-grown Spaniards and Czechs as free card holders already participated in Seville in advance. In the qualification, the Japanese and Australian women have already secured a place in the metropolis of Andalusia.
“At ten in the evening, the coach wrote to me that he plans to use me and I should prepare. There was a lot of nervousness on my part. The first whole set was a bit of a struggle, I had a mental block. I tried to shake things up and get to a good pace. Then I was already doing well.
It was an honor for me to be able to play at all and to have the trust of the team. It was more difficult for me to play in front of the home crowd, but I felt the support of the audience and that helped me.” Jamrichová told JOJ Šport.
Jamrichová lost serve in the opening game with Erjavečová, but immediately countered with a rebreak. At 2:1, she did not use four break points, but in the sixth game she broke the Slovenian’s serve for the second time in the match and already brought the first set to a successful end. At 5:2, she converted the first set point after a winning backhand longline. The talented Slovak was more patient in long exchanges, made fewer unforced errors.
In the second act, after two breaks, she built up a 5-0 lead and did not let go of the chance to win the decisive third point. The opponent, who is more than 400 places higher in the WTA world rankings, gave the “canary”. Jamrichová has a 2-0 record in the Billie-Jean King Cup, last year in the premiere in the prestigious team competition she won over the Argentine Nadia Podoroska, the Roland Garros semifinalist from 2020.
qualifying duel of the Billie-Jean King Cup:
SLOVAKIA – Slovenia 3:0 Anna Karolina Schmiedlová – Ela Nala Miličová 6:4, 6:3
Viktória Hrunčáková – Veronika Erjavečová 6:1, 5:7, 6:3
Renáta Jamrichová – Erjavečová 6:2, 6:0
2024-04-13 11:16:00
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