"I think it was ugly" says Belinda Bencic on Team Russia player switch in Billie Jean King Cup Finals

About 15 minutes before the first match was supposed to start, Jill Teichmann got word that she won't be facing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The Russian injured her knee during warm-ups and was forced to withdraw from the match resulting in Daria Kasatkina taking her place. The Swiss player was not able to adjust to the sudden change getting beaten rather easily.

She did not like the move and criticized it after the match. Tennis legend Pam Shriver was also vocally critical of it and now Belinda Bencic spoke out too. She said:

“I think it was ugly, to be honest and I just think in the end I think the good will win and we will come back and we will win this title."

Swiss Team Captain commented on the matter as well saying:

“Well it unfolded slightly differently, since we were told 15 minutes before the tie started that they switched No.1 player for their No.4 player. Now I don’t want to second-guess it but some people might say that’s a smart move, now that’s impossible – because either she actually injured herself, that would be unfortunate, or they did it on purpose, which would be cheating”.