In a phone interview, she said: Definitely feels like a home-court advantage.
I’m very familiar with the area … so definitely more comfortable with the surroundings, probably, than the Austrians are.
I’m very familiar with the area … so definitely more comfortable with the surroundings, probably, than the Austrians are.
The rest of the American team, which is made up of Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, Sofia Kennin, and Caty McNally, feel the same way. Their Team Captain Kathy Rinadli was born just an hour away from the BJK Cups venue in Florida.
It means a lot to compete here,” said Gauff. “I’m super excited to compete in front of my family and friends probably one of the few opportunities they get to see me play. She figures that it has been a long time since she last played in her hometown.
We go in confident, yes, but we don’t expect anything to be easy. The moment you take your opponent for granted is the moment you lost the match,” Gauff said.
“So we’re going to step in preparing for the match like were playing the No. 1 team in the world.
Team Captain Rinaldi also had something to say.
Were not going to go in there and underestimate our opponents. With Billie Jean King Cup, players tend to play their best and thats what were expecting. When youre playing for a team and for your country, its pretty powerful, she said.
Everybody respects our opponents and were still preparing as we would for any other tie.
In addition to the matches in Florida between the United States and Austria, there are other best-of-five matches going on in the rest of the world.
The other matchups are: France at Britain, Czech Republic against Ukraine in Turkey, Mexico at Spain, Belgium at Canada, Brazil at Germany, Italy at Slovakia, Poland at Kazakhstan, and Romania at Slovenia.