This weekend things will get serious again for Austria’s tennis women – in the play-off match against Ukraine (November 16th and 17th, 2024) it’s all about a place in the qualifying round for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals 2025.
Marion Maruska’s team began the long journey to McKinney near Dallas in the US state of Texas in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, where the international match will be held on neutral ground due to the ongoing chaos of war in Ukraine.
The first plane took off from Vienna-Schwechat at 7 a.m. – with captain Maruska, ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer, the trio of players Tamira Paszek (WTA 366), Tamara Kostic (WTA 500) and Julia Grabher (WTA 523), physiotherapist Katrin Müllner and masseur Werner Farmer.
At the stopover in Frankfurt am Main, Austria’s current number one Sinja Kraus (WTA 222) completed the red-white-red delegation.
The 11:20-hour onward journey to Dallas Forth Worth International Airport began together at 10:15 a.m. It wasn’t until Sunday evening after local time that the team arrived at the hotel – tired but safe.
Better chances than expected?
Of course, there isn’t too much time to take a breather: the first training sessions for the ÖTV ladies are scheduled for Monday at the facility called The Courts McKinney.
The local team wants to get their first impressions of the competition conditions – the game will be played on a hard court in the hall.
The training intensity should be increased step by step until the first serve, on Saturday at 12 p.m. local time (7 p.m. CET).
The Official Dinner is scheduled for Thursday evening, and the draw for the match fixtures will take place at the Official Draw on Friday at lunchtime (12:30 p.m. local time/7:30 p.m. CET). Before leaving, Maruska continued to look forward to the international competition.
Should it remain so, according to the provisional nominations, that Ukraine does not rely on former world number three Elina Svitolina (WTA 23), Dayana Yastremska (WTA 33) and Anhelina Kalinina (WTA 57) – three of their four top 60 players , the chances would be a little better than expected.
The Ukrainian captain, the still active ATP professional Illya Marchenko, initially nominated Marta Kostyuk (WTA 18), the former world number 23. Lesia Tsurenko (WTA 118), Anastasiia Sobolieva (WTA 220), Katarina Zavatska (WTA 229) and doubles specialist Nadiia Kichenok (WTA doubles 40).
Sobolieva was not initially on the list, but has since been added. Up to two players may be replaced or added to the final squad
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