Dhe German tennis women are 1-0 down after Andrea Petkovic’s defeat in the first group match against hosts Czech Republic at the Billie Jean King Cup. The 34-year-old from Darmstadt had to admit defeat to Marketa Vondrousova 1: 6, 3: 6 in Prague on Monday evening. The former world number one Angelique Kerber was under enormous pressure in the subsequent singles against the French Open winner Barbora Krejcikova to postpone the decision to double.
In the duel between the world number 76. Petkovic and her opponent, who was 40 places better, Vondrousova used her first match ball for a well-deserved victory after 1:15 hours. The second group game will be played by captain Rainer Schüttler on Tuesday against Switzerland with Olympic champion Belinda Bencic. Only the first of the four groups of three will reach the semi-finals on Friday.
In front of almost 10,000 mostly Czech spectators in the O2-Arena, the German number two got off to a very bad start against the left-hander and gave up her first service game. Although she managed the re-break to 1: 1, Petkovic was unable to counter Vondrousova’s powerful and variable game enough. Animated by trumpeters in the stands, the number 35 in the world gave Petkovic little chance.
The Hessian changed clubs after the 1: 3 and later received encouraging applause from the German women’s tennis boss Barbara Rittner when she won a point – it didn’t help that day. With a double fault, Petkovic gave up the first set after 32 minutes. In the second round she quickly fell 3-0 behind and scolded herself wildly when changing sides. She rewarded herself with the point win to 1: 3, but she couldn’t turn around against the never-ending Vondrousova.
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