Japan stun Netherlands for first World Team Cup women's title
Japan became just the fifth nation to lift the BNP Paribas World Team Cup women’s title on Saturday in Vilamoura, beating 32-time champions Netherlands 2-0 in a contest full of twists and turns.
In the seventh women’s final between the two nations since 2001, world No. 9 Momoko Ohtani and world No.2 Yui Kamiji beat Jiske Griffioen and Aniek van Koot, respectively, as Japan joined the list of nations to have now won all four World Team Cup titles, having won the junior title for the first time in 2021.
With world No. 1 Diede de Groot ruled out of the final on medical grounds, 2020 Roland Garros finalist Ohtani faced Rio Paralympic champion Jiske Griffioen in the opening singles contest earning an immediate break of serve and re-establishing a two-game cushion at 4-2.
Ohtani kept the pressure on former world No. 1 Griffioen to close out the match 6-3 6-4 and when Kamiji took the first set against world No. 3 van Koot, Japan were just one set away from the title.
However, the second and third sets featured large momentum swings between the two players and the final set became as much a battle of will and perseverance than a battle of forehands, backhands, athletic performance and skill.
After opening up a 3-0 set lead Kamiji served for the championship on three occasions and found herself just two points from a historic victory at 5-2, 5-3 and 5-4 ahead before Van Koot levelled the contest.
However, the 28-year-old two-time ITF World Champion’s resilience was rewarded with a first match point in the 12th game of the final set. After two hours and 42 minutes she calmly put away a cross court forehand winner to spark ecstatic scenes in the Japanese camp after her 6-3 3-6 7-5 victory.
“I’m very happy and excited about my performance today, but of course Diede didn’t play,” said Kamiji. “Of course, Aniek and Jiske are very good players and they have passion and never give up, so it was really difficult for us to get the win. First of all, I’m really happy to win this title with this team for the first time. But our job is to continue working hard to get the title again.
Ohtani echoed Kamiji’s thoughts, whetting the appetite for the 2023 World Team Cup.
I’ve never played against Jiske before so I’m very excited and happy, but I think I can be better,” she said. “We have never won this title before, so it is very special to win this as a team and I just want to keep working harder and harder to compete for the World Team Cup title again next year.”
Japan join Australia, China, P.R. and USA as the only nations to win the women’s title since the first women’s event in 1986.
USA won their second successive bronze medal after beating Colombia 2-0.