![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/8a7de951ca0ef126694371216c47fea2.jpeg\"\/)
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Katie Boulter came back from a set and a break down to beat Tatjana Maria – Getty Images for LTA\/Nathan Stirk<\/p>\n
Great Britain may be missing Emma Raducanu<\/a> in The Hague this week, but they still made a compelling start to their qualifying campaign as they romped to victory over Germany.<\/p>\n The two singles matches must both have been satisfying for team captain Anne Keothavong \u2013 albeit in very different ways \u2013 as Great Britain moved on to their decisive meeting with the Netherlands on Saturday in good heart.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n First, Raducanu\u2019s replacement Sonay Kartal scored a straight-sets victory over former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier on what was Kartal\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup debut.<\/p>\n And then British No 1 Katie Boulter<\/a> managed to crack one of tennis\u2019s most awkward puzzles: how do you beat slice-and-dice specialist Tatjana Maria on a bumpy indoor clay court?<\/p>\n It is difficult to watch Maria\u2019s carving game-style \u2013 with its slow, heavily underspin balls \u2013 without feeling anxious. Even for a top professional, timing often proves elusive against what the players call \u201cjunk\u201d \u2013 a style designed to cause maximum disruption.<\/p>\n Boulter spent the first set in a miserable funk. Any attempt at aggression seemed to end in the ball flying yards out of court. Yet there was no sense in poking and prodding, as that would only wrap her even more tightly in Maria\u2019s web. Here was a classic catch-22.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n A set and a break down at 6-1, 3-2, Boulter was in all sorts of trouble. Her face grew rigid with tension as she spoke to Keothavong at the change of ends. Happily, the two of them came up with the right answer. Boulter needed to keep playing her own big-hitting game, and hope that the ball started landing where it was supposed to.<\/p>\n Drawing on her strong BJK Cup record, Boulter managed to loosen up some of the tension in her wrists and arms. Eventually \u2013 starting with the first break-back for 3-3 in the second set \u2013 the timing started to come.<\/p>\n There was a certain symmetry to Boulter\u2019s eventual 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory. The scoreline shows how completely she turned the tables in the end, winning 10 of the last 11 games after having lost nine of the first 12.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Playing with growing freedom, Boulter wound up bullying Maria with almost every shot. Those skidding slices no longer looked like dangerous doodlebugs, but instead became slow, sit-up-and-hit-me balls. The transformation was extraordinary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really tough match,\u201d said Boulter afterwards. \u201cThat was my first match on clay [this season]. To come out against someone who\u2019s such a good tennis player, very quirky, makes you play so many shots \u2013 it\u2019s never easy to play against her. I\u2019m really proud of myself today.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked how she had escaped from her first-set paralysis, Boulter replied \u201cI just kept believing. At the start I was just trying to get used to her ball bounce and I was struggling a little bit with it. It wasn\u2019t really coming through the court at all, it was just sitting. But the moment I kind of found that, I felt very comfortable and I was in control of the shots a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier, Kartal had deployed her trademark grittiness against Niemeier in a match that underlined the value of consistency. At 5ft 4in, she looked underpowered in the early stages as her much taller and stronger opponent claimed the first two games. But Kartal makes a virtue of her ruggedness, tracking balls down relentlessly and asking you to beat her point after point.<\/p>\n Sonay Kartal stretches for a forehand en route to victory over Jule Niemeier – Getty Images for LTA\/Nathan Stirk<\/p>\n This proved too much for Niemeier, whose confidence had already been shaken by a 6-3, 6-1 upset against world No 265 Eva Vedder of the Netherlands during Germany\u2019s 3-0 defeat on Thursday.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The key game came at the end of the first set, as Niemeier served at 4-5. She wasted a couple of opportunities to level up for 5-5, and seemed particularly offended to have missed a forehand by a centimetre on one of those points, even though small margins are the nature of the sport. Then, after netting one of many errant forehands to lose the net, she sat weeping on her chair with her towel over her head. She never regained her composure, opening the second set with consecutive double-faults and eventually going down to a 6-4, 6-2 defeat.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m super proud of my debut match,\u201d said Kartal, 23, in her on-court interview. \u201cObviously [it was] nerve-wracking coming out here first on. I\u2019m proud of my performance and the crowd definitely stuck with me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s completely different [to playing on the tour],\u201d Kartal added. \u201cI love having a coach next to me and the rest of the guys beside me on the bench. It\u2019s a different style of tennis but I absolutely love this environment.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Sonay](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/eebe512f1e468d3f997a6803f6c4f64c.jpeg\"\/)
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