BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

September 24, 2026

Wim Fissette

Magali Kempen

Lara Salden

Team Belgium

Press Conference

KALILINA-KICHENOK/Kempen-Salden

6-3, 6-3

Team Ukraine - 2

Team Belgium - 1

THE MODERATOR: Wim, not the result you wanted, but my goodness, you must be very proud of your team.

CAPTAIN FISSETTE: Yeah, exactly. It was quite a journey to get here to the Finals. Over the past years I think we achieved a lot, like some really big moments, some real highlights.

The last week until this tie was the most difficult, for sure, with a lot of, yeah, injured players, sick players, players that made other choices. Yeah, it was hard to get to today. But really proud how everyone, like, fought hard.

These two girls had their first Billie Jean King Cup experience today, which is great. It's also unfortunate that it needs to be in the final eight.

Yeah, like this morning, let's say I was hoping of course to win. Inside I was, of course, very realistic that it was going to be very difficult.

Yeah, we got a lot closer than I was expecting.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Magali, just wondering how you prepare for doubles, not knowing whether you get on court at all, and if you do get on court, it's as much pressure as it can get.

MAGALI KEMPEN: Yeah, it's of course tough because we don't know if we need to play or not. So to prepare it's not ideal, but that's part of the job, of course, as a doubles player.

Yeah, I think also my preparation was not the best. I think I felt it also on court that I didn't play my level. It was a bit too bad.

I feel bad for the team, of course, because Greet played amazing match. Gave the opportunity to maybe take the win with the doubles. I think we could win the match.

No, we did our best, that's for sure. Yeah, it's not easy.

CAPTAIN FISSETTE: Of course, no blames to Magali. She was sick coming here. She practiced super hard. She did everything she could. Also, to be fair, the opponents played great today. I think, yeah, they didn't miss much, had a high first-serve percentage.

Lara arrived yesterday from the tournament in Portugal, or the evening before. It was the first day of practice. It's all, like, last-minute decisions.

I think, again, we did the maximum we could.

Q. Lara, how are you feeling physically after a long journey? Also I know it wasn't the result you wanted, but how do you feel having played Billie Jean King Cup for Belgium?

LARA SALDEN: Yeah, for sure it's great to be here. I was really happy that, yeah, could be here. Then the opportunity to play is amazing.

Of course, the preparation was not amazing. But yeah, we tried everything that we could. I tried to sleep good. I tried to eat good. We have two great physios with us here that helped me to prepare as good as possible.

Overall I feel like I played a decent match. Of course, the opponents were really strong. They probably had better preparation as us, but that doesn't mean anything.

Yeah, I'm happy that I had the opportunity to be here and to play this match, yeah.

Q. Wim, can you talk a little bit about the future of the team, what this experience being here at the Finals for the first time in a few years, how that's going to help the team going forward.

CAPTAIN FISSETTE: Yeah, well, we were hoping to have Jeline Vandromme here this week, which is a great Belgian player with a great future. She's going to be a big part of the team in the next years, for sure.

Yeah, the younger generation with Vandewinkel, Costoulas, Vandromme, still counting on some experienced players like Magali and maybe Lara in the future. She's just coming back from injuries, getting back into the doubles. Of course, counting on Minnen and hopefully Elise Mertens.

For a small country, we still have quite a lot of players, some with a lot of experience, some younger generation.

The goal should be always last eight. It's not going to happen every year. I think as our country with lots of great players, that should be the ambition.

Q. For the two players, this is a very long day, starting from 10 in the morning till almost 6 p.m. We have seen three matches. Especially for the second match, it lasted almost three hours. Despite the loss, I think you must have learned a lot. What does this experience contribute to your future matches?

MAGALI KEMPEN: Yeah, it's true it's a long day. We leave the hotel at 7-ish. Of course, we need to be, yeah, fit for our match. We tried to practice well, take some rests in between, eat well.

It's of course not easy with all the matches going on. You also want to support the other players on our team. It takes a lot of energy. I think I need to manage it a bit better, my preparation, myself, for the next time.

But yeah, it's of course always nice to see also the other girls play and fight. Greet, it was an amazing match. It was tough to leave before so we could relax a bit and warm up.

I don't know how you felt about it.

LARA SALDEN: Yeah, of course as a doubles player it happens a lot that we play late in the day, that we have to wait, depending on the matches of the singles, how fast it goes. We never really know what time we're going to start the match.

For me was not, like, super tough this time because I feel like I'm more used to it. I felt like I got a bit more nervous while Greet was playing because it was so close. I knew if she won that we would play. We decided in the third set to leave the court and to focus a little bit mentally. I think, yeah, that was a good thing that we did.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.