A gaffe involving the German national anthem during a Fed Cup tie continued to outrage Andrea Petkovic on Sunday even as the United States reached the brink of the semi-finals.
Petkovic said she “never felt so disrespected” and her German teammates were angry and upset after the opening ceremony blunder Saturday at the quarter-final tie in Maui, Hawaii.
An American soloist sang an old version of the German anthem that begins with a stanza considered overtly nationalist — “Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles” — a reference to German supremacy.
Singing that version is unwelcome in Germany because of its strong links to the Nazi era, with only the third stanza of the old anthem now used.
“I have never felt so disrespected in my life,” Petkovic said Saturday. “It was an absolute effrontery and insolence of the very worst kind.
“We’re in 2017 — something like this should not happen in America. It is embarrassing and smacks of ignorance. I had tears in my eyes and was angry.”
Organizers apologized but the damage was done. Petkovic lost to Alison Riske 7-6 (12/10), 6-2 in Saturday’s only completed match.
The US women took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five tie when Julia Georges, who was in tears after the anthem error, retired Sunday from a rain-halted match with Coco Vandeweghe leading 6-3, 3-1.
Reverse singles matches and doubles were set for later Sunday.
The winner will advance to the April 22-23 semi-finals to face defending champion Czech Republic, which downed Spain 3-2 in Ostrava.
Petkovic took to Twitter on Sunday to make what she called “an attempt at the less emotional explanation with regard to yesterday’s history of the hymns. I think it puts things better in perspective.”
Petkovic noted the anthem incident took place just moments before the start of her match.
“We were mainly (stunned) and did not know how we react. We feared the whole thing could fall back on us,” Petkovic wrote. “I lost the match and was approached directly after the anthem. This may explain the emotional expression somewhat better.
“With (time) and a little more rationality, I can classify it as a mistake (for) which the Americans apologized to us. And again it is not the worst thing which happened to me in life. But it is the worst thing which happened to me in my Fed Cup life ever.”
The team and a handful of supporters tried in vain to sing the correct anthem stanza — “Unity, Rights and Freedom” — over the soloist.
“That was difficult because he sang so loud,” Petkovic said. “But the fans were very responsive.”
Germany captain Barbara Rittner said Saturday she was horrified by the “respectless number” and had pondered snatching the microphone from the singer.
“This is a real scandal and is inexcusable,” Rittner said. “I could have cried, because it is always a special moment, which gives you goosebumps, when you hear the anthem being played. What happened here hits us hard.”
The president of the US Tennis Association, Katrina Adams, immediately apologized to Rittner in person and promised to investigate.
“The USTA extends a sincere apology to the German Fed Cup team & fans 4 the outdated National Anthem,” the US Tennis Association tweeted. “This mistake will not occur again.”
The German tennis federation replied tersely, “@usta we hope so…”, prompting the USTA to respond, “@DTB Tennis We can assure that it won’t. Again, our sincere apologies.”
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