BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 9, 2023

Rainer Schuettler

Eva Lys

Anna-Lena Friedsam

Laura Siegemund

Team Germany

Press Conference

BRONZETTI-COCCIARETTO/Friedsam-Siegemund

6-4, 6-7, 11-9

Team Italy - 3

Team Germany - 0

THE MODERATOR: We will start with English questions.

Q. The question is for Laura. I'd like to know a little bit about your schedule from Monday when you were playing in Cancun, I think, and then when did you arrive? Did you get a chance to practice at all on these courts? Secondly, did that 72 hours impact at all on today's doubles result?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: Yeah, first of all, I was really looking forward to play this Billie Jean King Cup with the team, because we are really, you know, we have a great vibe in the team. It was for me very unfortunate that the scheduling was the way that it was.

Of course it's nice, you know, to win this big trophy over there, but very unfortunate that two big events that you want to do well in both are so close to each other.

I flew, left Cancun on Monday night, basically right after, you know, all the media things and all that. I came here. I did have a chance to practice on Wednesday. Of course it's not a good preparation, but, you know, I felt okay.

But of course it did impact I think my performance today. Nevertheless, we were really close to winning. It was a really close match. Went a bit unfortunate, yeah.

Q. Captain Schuettler, what was the reason behind the change with Tatjana Maria, at least as far as I was concerned, was due to play the doubles but finally didn't?

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: We had, like, with the team a discussion, and then at the end we thought this is the best way to play it. There were some issues, and so we decided to nominate the team like this.

Q. The issues?

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: Internally (smiling). But not negative. It's not a negative issue. Just discussion in the team, who is the best matchup for the opponent. That's more the internal discussions. Not a negative one.

Q. So did you sort of have a feeling about the opponent and then decide to change?

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: Yeah, exactly.

Q. Okay.

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: That's what we did also in the past, and that's how we did it also here.

Q. Eva and Anna-Lena, now of course you still have one more match to play. Just thinking about the motivation for that match. It's kind of what we'd say in English is a dead rubber in terms that it doesn't have a huge amount on it, but are you still keen to at least leave Seville on a high?

EVA LYS: Definitely this day didn't go as planned, and it's always nice to go home with wins. But I'm sure that we're going to be ready for tomorrow. We're still again, as Laura said, we're a great team. We're lifting each other up.

Maybe we'll take, like, a couple of minutes to let all the feelings slide, but we're still in a competition. We still have two or three good matches. Definitely we'll try to bounce back as good as possible.

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: There is one other thing, sorry, I would like to clarify, because I think my answer was not very good or very positive.

What I meant with this is because Eva came late. We had an issue with her, with her flights. Laura came late. That's why we were discussing who was playing. It was not a problem or discussions internally. It was more the circumstances coming together. So just to clarify this, sorry.

Q. I have a follow-up. That was the Hamburg issue, right?

CAPTAIN RAINER SCHUETTLER: Exactly.

Q. Were you at the airport when it happened?

EVA LYS: No, fortunately not. I think it happened the evening before, and it just kept going for --

Q. 18 hours.

EVA LYS: Yeah, I was lucky not to be on-site.

Q. Laura, I remember you saying to me in May that you were really keen to have a big doubles year. I think it's fair to say you have had a good year. Maybe not so much today, but in general. Does that also suggest that in 2024 you will put even more focus on the doubles, or is still singles an equal, at least, priority for you?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: For this year the priority was meant to be on the doubles really, and the singles was kind of just something I wanted to play on the side a bit.

I felt pretty good in singles, I have to say. I mean, you know, physically maybe not the best I felt, but result-wise and how I played I think was really good. For next year, now that I'm back in the top 100 in singles, I would really like to play both how I did this year. Maybe if I can, then with the rankings being a bit closer together, at least both in the top 100, being able to make a bit better schedule and play both, yeah, that's the plan.