The Billie Jean King Cup play-off match between Ukraine and the Netherlands women’s tennis teams will take place on 11 and 12 November.
The draw determined that Ukraine would host consecutive matches in recent years, but due to the Russian invasion we again had to play a home match in neutral territory. This time it will be the SEB Arena in Vilnius (Lithuania).
Who will play?
Ukraine’s first player in the upcoming match: Elina Svitolina, who is still at the beginning of the training process after her ankle injury, will not be able to play for the Ukrainian national team. This injury did not allow her to finish the first season brightly after returning from maternity leave. Also, Marta Kostyuk was not included in the application, she recently attended a wedding. Apparently not everyone was happy with this decision. Ukraine’s current third racket, Lesya Tsurenko, has not been playing for the national team lately, so you definitely shouldn’t be surprised by her absence.
There is also good news: Angelina Kalinina will defend the colors of the national team for the first time. By the way, he is already 26 years old – not the earliest time for a debut. For some reason, the native of Novaya Kakhovka had previously refused to participate in the Billie Jean King Cup, but this time everything went well. His presence is our main trump card in the match against the Netherlands.
The composition of the Ukrainian national team:
Angelina Kalinina (No. 27 WTA, No. 141 WTA doubles)
Dayana Yastremskaya (No. 106 WTA, No. 728 WTA doubles)
Katarina Zavatskaya (No. 154 WTA, No. 604 WTA doubles)
Lyudmila Kichenok (WTA No. 35 doubles)
Nadezhda Kichenok (WTA No. 53 doubles)
Captain: Mikhail Philima
The most famous tennis players in the Dutch national team’s squad are number one Arancha Rus and experienced player Demi Schurs. The Russian is the same “trickster” who broke into the top 100 in 2019 thanks to frequent victories at 25 thousand meters. She achieved 63 wins in 68 matches in ITF W25 competitions, as well as 10 championships per season. He played a total of 104 matches that year, winning 78 of them (54 wins were won on clay). In the following years, Arancia won bigger ITF tournaments and this season she rose to a new level, winning the title at the WTA 250 in Hamburg and entering the top fifty in the world rankings. The biggest championship on hard surfaces is the ITF 50k in 2009.
Susan Lamens, the second number of the Dutch national team, is more familiar to Ukrainian fans from her matches with Daria Snigur, but she also managed to play with Kalinina. He poses much less of a threat than the Russian, but can receive the ball well. In the second half of last month I played in the semi-finals of the ITF grueling 100K competition in England, this is a serious level. If the so-called Yastremskaya does not fly, there may be big problems. By the way, it is not entirely clear why Arianna Hartono was not given the second number, but the captain, of course, knows better. Maybe they are tactically saving it for the Ukrainian team’s second score on the second day. Now Hartono will play doubles with Demi Schurs; I really don’t want the fate of the match to be decided in the fifth match. In the doubles rankings, the Schurs are in the top 20 and the Russian is in the top 100, so no matter which pair we field, we will not be the favorites in that match.
The composition of the Dutch national team:
Arancha Rus (No. 51 WTA, No. 86 WTA doubles)
Arianne Hartono (No. 180 WTA, No. 192 WTA doubles)
Susan Lammens (No. 218 WTA, No. 220 WTA doubles)
Demi Schurs (WTA No. 19 doubles)
Captain: Elise Tamaela
Which uniform of Ukraine?
Actually, all is not well here. Kalinina and Yastremskaya did not play official matches for about a month. During this period, Diana also spent almost two weeks on recovery procedures. Competitors have approximately two weeks of downtime or rest. However, the captain of the Ukrainian national team, Mikhail Philima, admitted that he liked the level of play of the Ukrainian women in training and could not help but be happy.
Mutual matches
The Ukrainian and Dutch national teams had previously met in 2004 as part of regional competitions held on clay courts in Athens. Current Orange captain Elise Tamaela lost to Julia Beigelzimer and Elena Tataarkova defeated Michaela Krajicek. In the doubles match, Ukrainians Olga Savchuk and Maria Koryttseva were defeated, but this did not affect the overall result.
What are the teams fighting for?
The winner of this match will advance to the Knockout round next season and thus advance to the Final of the year. The losing team will go on to win the regional tournaments in Group One. Let us note that last year we were stronger than the Japanese team in the play-off stage (3-1), and we lost to the Czech team (1-3) in April 2023.
Match schedule
First day (Saturday, November 11)
12:00. Angelina Kalinina – Susan Lamens
14:00*. Dayana Yastremskaya – Arancha Russian
Second day (Sunday, November 12)
12:00. Angelina Kalinina – Arancha Russian
14:00*. Dayana Yastremskaya – Susan Lamens
16:00*. Lyudmila Kichenok / Nadezhda Kichenok – Arianne Hartono/Demi Schurs
* – Approximate time
To guess
It is very important for us that Kalinina controlled her nerves in the first match and beat her opponent’s second point. In this case, the result of the second match will not be so important, but I would like to win it too. The 2:0 after the first day will be very strong, because on the second day we will be the favorites in both singles matches. However, it is dangerous to delay in the last played pair. The Ukrainian team understands this very well, so we believe in our girls, who have made us happy in recent years, sometimes even jumping over our heads. There’s no need for that this time, that’s where all the danger lies.
Sport.ua prediction: victory of the Ukrainian national team with a score of 3:1
