New Zealand team named for Billie Jean King Cup
Captain Marina Erakovic has named an experienced group of players in the New Zealand team for the Billie Jean King Cup Asia Oceania Group 1 tournament in Antalya in Turkey next month.
Paige Hourigan, (446 singles) Valentina Ivanov (1359 singles) and Erin Routliffe (1280 singles 33 doubles) who helped the team win the Asia/Oceania Group 2 tournament in February 2020, have all been retained with top junior Vivian Yang the new addition. The 17-year-old has impressed on the ITF Junior circuit where she is ranked 131 and reached the semi-finals at the Grade 1 tournament in Thailand last week. 29-year old Katherine Westbury (1360 singles) has also been named to the team.
“We have a strong team heading to Turkey. All these girls have been training and competing well over the last six months. They have matches under their belts, and some are also coming from recent clay court events, which will be great for the conditions there.” Erakovic said.
“Vivian is one of our best young players coming through. She has improved massively over the past two years and is gaining experience by the day with her recent playing schedule. Even though she is young, she is a huge asset to the team.”
Two teams from the six-team tournament are promoted to the playoffs and two teams are relegated to Asia Oceania Group 2.
New Zealand will have its work cut being the lowest ranked team at 35. Japan, although they don’t have the services of their top singles players Naomi Osaka and Misaki Doi, are the top seeds ranked 18th with China 22nd, South Korea 28th, India 30th and Indonesia 32nd.
While New Zealand should field a strong doubles combination led by Routliffe who is ranked 33, the format sees the two singles matches played first with the doubles only played if it’s one all.
“We definitely have a challenge ahead of us.” Erakovic said. “There are some tough teams in this group and we will have to lift our level for sure. But as they say, anything can happen in tennis. We just have to focus on ourselves and take it one match, one point at a time.”
The tournament is being played from the 12th to the 16th of April in Antalya outdoors on red clay.
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