BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 12, 2024

Rainer Schuettler

Laura Siegemund

Tatjana Maria

Anna-Lena Friedsam

Jule Niemeier

Eva Lys

Team Germany

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello, everyone. Let's start the press conference with Team Germany. Please raise your hands for English questions.

Q. Welcome to Malaga, everyone. It's nice to see you all. Good luck for the week. Laura, it's another Finals for Germany. How much excitement and anticipation is there within the team for this week?

LAURA SIEGEMUND: It's always nice. You know, it was a long season, but it's nice to come together as a team. I think we are all excited to have another hopefully good week together.

Even though we just arrived yesterday, we get along really well, so I think we always have a good vibe right away. Had a great opening ceremony together.

Yeah, I think we are now preparing well, and I think all of us are really excited to hopefully perform well and have a good result.

Q. Jule, how nice is it for you to be back in the team after missing the qualifiers in April? How much are you looking forward to this week being back?

JULE NIEMEIER: No, it feels great to be back with the team. With the girls, especially. And Rainer, of course (smiling). But as Laura said already, we get along very well, and we always have a great time, a great week.

I'm happy I can be back with the girls, with the team, with Rainer, and with the staff. Hopefully it's going to be a successful week.

Q. Tatjana, I think you first played this competition back in 2011. What is it about this competition which you find so special? And what are the main things you enjoy about weeks like this?

TATJANA MARIA: Yes, I think it's really nice to be in the team. It was always nice for me to play team competition. From little on, I was playing also different sports and team.

It's super nice to have a team competition, and I'm really happy to be still playing, still in the team, and we have such a great team, so it's a really nice week for us.

Q. Eva, what's it like for you to pull on the Germany colors at these events? What's that mean to you?

EVA LYS: Definitely a big honor. I feel like for me, playing for your country is definitely something very special.

I feel like I'm also very lucky to have such a nice team, because every year those two weeks, if we are playing qualifying and then finals, I'm always having a lot of fun and I'm always very excited to get back, because I feel like it's the first or maybe like the second week of the year where I can actually maybe turn my head off a little bit and just enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the team. We're not playing each other, and I feel like together it's a lot more fun (smiling).