Paszek wins singles

ÖTV women lose duel for tournament victory

Tamira Paszek and Sinja Kraus(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Austria's tennis women suffered their first defeat on Saturday at the end of the Europe-Africa Zone I tournament in the Billie Jean King Cup in Oeiras. In the duel for the tournament title, they lost 2:1 to the Netherlands, after beating Serbia 3:0 the day before in another match between two group winners. Team captain Marion Maruska's squad had already secured promotion to the play-offs in the fall on Tuesday.

Against the Dutch women, it was now a question of points for the national rankings and a place in the play-off. Tamira Paszek had put Red-White-Red ahead in Portugal against Anouk Koevermans 6:2,6:3, after which Sinja Kraus lost to Suzan Lamens 3:6,1:6. In the decisive doubles match, Kraus/Paszek suffered a 5:7,3:6 defeat against Lamens/Demi Schuurs. The Austrians had defeated Denmark and Hungary in the group phase and thus won the pool despite losing to Bulgaria.

Paszek was at least satisfied with her individual performance. "I played solidly, so the victory on clay was all the better." Despite the defeat against "Oranje", the Vorarlberg native had another reason to be happy, as she made it through to the 125-player tournament at the same venue next week. "My first WTA tournament on the tour since 2016. Wonderful and very emotional," explained the former world number 26.

ÖTV Sports Director Jürgen Melzer gave a positive assessment of the week in Portugal: "I'm very satisfied. The performance today was also okay. It's a good team that sticks together." Julia Grabher was only used at the beginning, but gave the all-clear. She hadn't been fully fit since Wednesday and didn't want to take any risks: "I'm obviously not used to the stress of competition yet. I'll be training in Südstadt next week and then hopefully play a few more tournaments so that I'm in match practice for the French Open."