Portugal returns to the Billie Jean King Cup with the aim of “climbing the division” in North Macedonia
The Portugal women’s team is already in Skopje, in North Macedonia, where from Wednesday it will fight to be the best team of the week to achieve promotion to Group II of the Europe-Africa Zone of Billie Jean King Cup.
In statements to the racketa national selector, Neuza Silvareported the good reception in the country and in the open-air dirt complex and stated that “the conditions are our quality to put into practice as a team”which is composed of Francesca Jorge (377th of classification WTA), Matilde Jorge (674th), Inês Myrta (683rd) and Ana Filipa Santos (1125th).
“The first workout [no domingo] it was adapting to the heat and the ball, which makes the game faster”added a former tennis player, who represented a Portuguese team in 23 qualifiers (the fifth best record in the country’s history).
With the clear objective of “do everything to get us back to the second division”, Portugal leaves as the favorite team to grab a single qualifying spot at stake in this Event B of the Europe/Africa Zone of Group III.
For this, the Portuguese delegation will have to win the matches with Burundi (Wednesday) and Malta (Thursday) in order to finish Group B in first place and guarantee a place in the semi-finals of the Pay qualifiers, which bring together as four winning teams from the group stage.
Group A comprises Ireland, Island and Seychelles, Group B by Portugal, Malta and Burundi, Group C by South Africa, North Macedonia, Botswana and Uganda and Group D by Albania, Namibia, Kosovo and Kenya.
Among the countries presented in Skopje, Portugal is the only one to have four players with classification of singulars. North Macedonia (273rd and 1357th) and Malta (709th and 956th), with two players, followed by Burundi (296th), South Africa (690th) and Kenya ( 1545th), with one.