Jule Niemeier gave the German tennis women a 2-1 lead in the playoff game of the Billie Jean King Cup. The German number one won against Ana Konjuh 6:2, 6:1 in Rijeka and thus celebrated her first individual victory in the traditional team competition, which was known for many years as the Fed Cup.
The 23-year-old from Dortmund showed a clear improvement one day after the clear defeat against the only 16-year-old Petra Marcinko and converted her first match point after 1:21 hours. Konjuh was only short-term nominated for the Croatian number one Petra Martic.
Germany is only missing one victory to prevent relegation from the world group. In the fourth individual, Anna-Lena Friedsam and Marcinko face each other. Friedsam moves up for 20-year-old Lys, who surprisingly won in two sets against Martic on Friday on her debut. “We think it’s the better matchup,” said team boss Rainer Schüttler, explaining the somewhat unexpected change.
