The DTB team will face the Netherlands and Great Britain in The Hague.
Led by Australian Open surprise Eva Lys, the German tennis players will fight to reach the final round of the Billie Jean King Cup in The Hague.
Team captain Rainer Schüttler has nominated the new German number one for the matches against the Netherlands (April 10) and Great Britain (April 11), along with Jule Niemeier, Tatjana Maria and Laura Siegemund.
“I have nominated the best German tennis players currently available for the qualifying round. We have often competed in the Billie Jean King Cup with this line-up,” said Schüttler: ‘In this constellation, we have a number of options, especially for the doubles, which is of great importance in the current format.’ Schüttler has not yet decided on the fifth player in the team. Hamburg’s Lys had surprisingly reached the round of 16 as a lucky loser in Melbourne and had thus also worked her way up in the world rankings.
The matches will be played on clay at the Zuiderpark Sports Campus in front of up to 3,500 spectators. The winner of each group will advance to the final round in Shenzhen, China. The other two nations will play in the play-offs in November to avoid relegation from the World Group. This format change will only take effect in 2025, when the final round will be switched from a twelve-team to an eight-team tournament. From 2026, there will be traditional home and away matches again instead of a group stage.
Last year, the German Tennis Association (DTB) team was knocked out in the round of 16 by the British team at the final round in Malaga.
