Dutch win 25th World Team Cup Women's Title

"The Netherlands won their 25th women’s title on the fifth day."

The Netherlands won their 25th women’s title on the fifth day of the BNP Paribas World Team Cup beating third seeds Japan in the final. Great Britain claimed the bronze medal in the women’s event and also the bronze medal in the junior event at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Seoul, Korea Republic.

Marjolein Buis, who has reached a career best world ranking at no. 3 this week, sped through the opening singles rubber of the women’s final against Japan’s Kanako Domori 6-1 6-0, but 18-year-old world no. 7 Yui Kamijj, the world’s top ranked junior player, made a brave attempt at keeping Japanese hopes alive in the final when she took the first set off world no. 2 Aniek van Koot in the second singles rubber.

However, van Koot regrouped and dominated the next two sets to win 3-6 6-1 6-0 to wrap up a 2-0 victory over third seeds Japan. The Netherlands now boast 25 victories in the 27 years of the women’s event being played at the World Team Cup. In 1994 they were sixth and in 1999 second.

The bronze medal play-off pitched fourth seeds Great Britain against 2011 runners-up and second seeds Germany, but Britain’s Jordanne Whiley and Lucy Shuker both beat higher ranked opposition as Great Britain won the bronze medal for the second successive year.

World no. 13 Whiley defeated world no. 12 Katharina Kruger 6-3 6-4 in the opening singles rubber, while British no. 1 and world no. 11 Lucy Shuker powered to a 6-0 6-4 win over Germany's world no. 6 Sabine Ellerbrock to give Great Britain their second successive bronze medal in the women's event.

Two days after beating South Africa in the round-robin phase of the junior event, top seeds Great Britain recorded the same result to claim the bronze medal.

Sixteen year-old Lauren Jones completed her BNP World Team Cup debut with four wins from her five singles rubbers, after she defeated Mabel Mankgele 6-3 6-0, while 14-year-old Alfie Hewett, the reigning Cruyff Foundation Junior Masters champion , beat Gift Lekhanyane 6-1 6-3 to put the play-off beyond the reach of South Africa,

South Africa’s fourth place improves on their seventh place finish in 2011, when they made their debut in the junior event on home soil in Pretoria.

The Netherlands and USA will be lining up in Saturday’s (26 May) final of the junior event, which is once again supported by the Johan Cruyff Foundation.