BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

November 14, 2024

Horia-Vlad Tecau

Monica Niculescu

Elena-Gabriela Ruse

Team Romania

Press Conference

AOYAMA-HOZUMI/Niculescu-Ruse

6-1, 7-5

Team Japan - 2

Team Romania - 1

THE MODERATOR: First of all, I would like to ask to the captain what are your thoughts about the tie? Any comment about the matches?

CAPTAIN HORIA-VLAD TECAU: Tough. Tough moment right after a very close tie that we lost.

Proud of my team and the fighting spirit. We started with 1-0. Thought Ana played a solid match against Hibino to get the first win for Romania.

I thought Shibahara played a very good singles match. I thought we could have done better in that match to get Jaqueline to play a little more solid, but we all know the pressure and the emotions of this competition, which is not always easy to produce your good tennis. We tried. Was a big fight. Was close till the end.

Then at 1-All, again, we thought we had some chances. The scoreboard looks tougher than the match was, especially the first set. We had the first chance, first two breakpoints, and, you know, things could go different if we get those.

But again, we fought till the end. We looked for solutions. The Japanese team played better in some moments. We were trying everything, and shots were missed by inches, but that's how tennis is. I mean, I feel we had a big fight and tried to look for solutions till the end.

We're a bit disappointed in this moment, of course, to not get the win, but again, we look at the positives. It was a big fight for the matches, which we always enjoy. Credit to Team Japan for producing very good tennis in the last two matches.