Brazilian quad team edge past Germany in Vilamoura
Ymanitu Silva and Leandro Pena extended their respective unbeaten records in singles and doubles competition on Portuguese soil as the opening day of the 2021 BNP Paribas World Team Cup Qualification saw Brazil edge to a 2-1 victory over Germany in the first of this week’s quad round-robin ties at Vilamoura Tennis Academy.
Silva claimed victory in the quad singles on Saturday at the Vilamoura Open, while partnering Pena to win the quad doubles.
The world No. 6 made it three wins in Vilamoura as his 6-1 7-5 victory over Marcus Laudan cancelled out Nick Nobbe’s win for Germany in the opening singles match. Silva and Pena then secured their third successive doubles win in in less than a week as they held off a determined effort from Laudan and Nobbe to take the decisive match 6-4 6-2.
“In the decisive match we were 3-0 down in the first set and losing 2-0 in the second set before we won 6-4 6-2. We are very excited to play in this beautiful country and happy to be a match nearer to the Finals,” said Silva.
The top team in each of the two groups in the quad event will qualify for the 2021 World Team Cup Finals in Sardinia October. Germany will now face Sweden in their group on Tuesday, when the other group will be decided between top seeds Netherlands and Turkey.
Germany and Mexico reach women’s quarter-finals
A gulf in World Team Cup experience made little difference as Katharina Kruger and Britta Wend earned a bloodless 2-0 win for Germany over Lithuania in the women’s event, with both players taking all 12 games of their respective singles matches over Agneska Tolocko and Kotryna Zizmaraite.
Kruger made her World Team Cup debut for Germany over 15 years ago in the junior event and has a silver medal and a string of semi-final appearances in the women’s event to her name. Meanwhile, this year’s qualification event is Wend’s debut in the ITF’s flagship wheelchair tennis team event after she only started playing wheelchair tennis in 2019 and made her international tournament debut at last week’s Vilamoura Open, where she also won her opening match.
A former handball player, Wend was injured during the course of her sports studies in early 2019. Having played tennis recreationally when she was young, she made the decision to transfer her athletic abilities to wheelchair tennis and it’s a decision that promises a bright future. Her journey so far has even included hitting on court with countryman Alexander Zverev at Cologne’s ATP 250 event last October.
“I had known for a long time that there was wheelchair tennis and after my accident I realised relatively quickly that this sport was a great option for me. The fact that I swung the racket as a hobby as a child and adolescent was certainly very helpful when getting started,” Wend wrote in a blog for the DTB website last year.
“But it's not just the active sport, but above all the community around it that ensures that I have developed so much fun with wheelchair tennis. Before I started wheelchair tennis, I really missed the feeling of standing on the pitch with training mates, teammates and trainers, having fun and improving.
“For my near future as an athlete, I hope to enjoy my tournaments and to be able to collect one or the other sense of achievement,” she added. “In the long term, I want to get the best out of myself while always having fun with tennis and the community."
While Germany moved seamlessly past Lithuania to earn a quarter-final against third seeds France, Mexico had a considerably tougher time against Ukraine, with Claudia Taboada and Rosalba Vazquez joining forces to win their decisive doubles against Olena Grabovska and Olena Shyngaryova to give Mexico a 2-1 victory.
Austria's men ease past hosts Portugal
With Portugal having hosted the World Team Cup European Qualification for three years from 2017 to 2019, Austria came out on top in the men’s event in Vilamoura in 2019.
Nico Langmann and Martin Legner ensured that Austria’s winning ways continued on the first day of play this year, the second seeds wrapping up a 3-0 win over host nation Portugal after Josef Riegler opened the tie with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Fabio Reis.
“Obviously a lot has happened since the last time we were here, so you can’t really compare the two events, in my opinion. But I feel like we are in a good place now as a team again and we are definitely up for the challenge,” said Langmann. “Knowing that we can perform under the Portuguese circumstances does help though.
Just before the pandemic started I made a total change in my team, I started to train with Dominic Thiem’s father Wolfgang in late 2019, which brought a lot of changes in my game t. So I was able to use the break from tour really well, since adaptations in tennis always take time. I was lucky enough to start practising again in May 2020 and was able to train since then without a break. So I’m more than ready for the Paralympic season.”
Seven-time Paralympian Legner holds the record for the most World Team Cup appearances by any player, having represented Austria more than 25 times. It’s a record Langmann would be proud to get near, but he has more immediate ambitions.
“I think what Martin achieved is quite unique, and I can’t really compare my career to his... yet,” added 23-year-old Langmann. “But obviously, chasing some of his records is a goal for me. But for now, getting back into the Top 20, from which I dropped after my coaches changed, that is a goal I‘d like to achieve in the near future. And then the Paralympics are just around the corner. There are busy times ahead.”
With two men’s knockout draws being held in Vilamoura this year, the finalists in each draw will qualify for the 2021 World Team Cup in Sardinia. Progressing to the semi-finals in the same draw as Austria are Chile, while Belarus advanced to the quarter-finals after their 2-0 win over Guatemala and Kenya were awarded a walkover into the last eight after Costa Rica defaulted their tie.
Top seeds Israel also eased into the semi-finals in the other draw after dropping just one game throughout their 3-0 win over Hungary. They are joined in the last four by Poland, who won both singles matches to claim their tie against Slovakia 2-0.
Africa are represented in both men’s quarter-finals after Juma Hasimi and Novatus Temba combined to edge out Denmark’s Meyer Mads Lunde and Thomas Pedersen 3-0. It’s eight years since Hasimi and Temba featured in Tanzania’s World Team Cup debut in Turkey in 2013, when both players represented their country in the junior event. It’s also four years since Hasimi and Temba led Tanzania to win the World Team Cup African Qualification and they remain a credit to their country after winning three tense matches against Denmark, with all three matches including a tie-break.
Croatia will play Sri Lanka for a semi-final place after Anto Joskic and Sven Maretic delivered a much easier victory over Mexico, both players winning their respective singles matches 6-1 6-1.