Tennis: Świątek sends Poland into Billie Jean King Cup finals

Pole Iga Świątek, Best women’s tennis player in the world, won against Romania's Andreea Prisacariu on Saturday putting Poland en route to the Billie Jean King Cup finals.

On April 15-16 Poland and Romania competed for a place in the Billie Jean King Cup finals. Iga Świątek, who put her country up 2-0 on Friday’s opening day by thrashing Mihaela Buzărnescu 6-1, 6-0 for an 18th straight win, continued to show why she is the number one racket in the world breaking Prisacariu six times in Radom, Poland.

“I'm really proud. I was really working hard for that. Even though I didn’t play last year, I feel it’s been a long journey and it took us a few years to progress step by step and qualify for the finals,” Ms Świątek said after her victory.

“It just shows what a strong team we are. Hopefully in the finals we’re going to show even more progress and we’re going to succeed,” she added.

Poles apart 👏🇵🇱@iga_swiatek and Poland are heading to the Finals for the first time!#BJKCup | @pzt_tenis pic.twitter.com/d0LnTvzAsr

— Billie Jean King Cup (@BJKCup) April 16, 2022

The Polish team for the Billie Jean King Cup consists of 5 players: Iga Świątek, the team’s best player, Magda Linette, Magdalena Fręch, Maja Chwalińska and Alicja Rosolska.

Last November, Russia won the tournament finals in Prague. However, they will not be defending their title because they were excluded from the competition due to the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. Belarus, whose authorities support the aggression, was also excluded from the competition.

Billie Jean King Cup is the “world’s largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 116 nations entered in 2020,” the tournament website states.