Dart misses mark
Britain tumble out of the Fed Cup after defeat in Slovakia
Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong said she would not stop trying to convince Johanna Konta to return to Fed Cup action, after her team failed to reach the inaugural finals week by losing to Slovakia yesterday.
Harriet Dart, cap lowered with her team-mates crowded around her, was the lasting image of a day where she and Heather Watson put up a valiant effort at a comeback in Bratislava.
But Great Britain had left themselves with just too much to do after losing both ties on Friday, with just one more loss yesterday from Dart enough to signal their elimination from this year’s tournament.
It means that instead of travelling to Budapest for the first Fed Cup finals week in April, Great Britain will need to contest a play-off to maintain their status as one of the top-20 teams in the world and avoid relegation to the second-tier Euro/Africa Zone I Group, which they only escaped last April.
It will not be a simple task, with the likes of Ukraine and their leading player, world No 4 Elina Svitolina among the teams aiming to knock Britain off their perch.
As the visiting team, they were the underdogs from the moment this draw was made last August, especially as they were forced to play on their weakest surface, clay.
And when Konta opted out of selection last month, their odds worsened.
The British No1, who before this tie had not skipped Fed Cup action since 2016, said she would be absent all year in order to prioritise the Olympics. But after her team’s loss last night, Keothavong said she would definitely revisit the topic with Konta.
“Over the next few weeks there’ll be another chat with Jo,” she said.
“Though once she makes up her mind on things she usually sticks to it, I don’t know, maybe I need a few tips in the art of persuasion.
“But last year, after playing Fed Cup, she went on to incredible things and I have no doubt that the matches she played helped her for the rest of the season.
“For sure it gave her confidence. Maybe she’ll think twice. She’s been a crucial member over the last few years. I’m going to give it my best shot, I hope she changes her mind for April.”
The positive takeaway amid the disappointment was that Watson and Dart made the qualifier competitive on day two, with the former delivering a composed straight sets win in the opener against Rebecca Sramkova.
A stroke of luck helped Watson to an easier draw than had initially been planned, after Slovakia’s No1 Viktoria Kuzmova pulled out of the singles with illness, her three-hour battle with Dart the previous night wearing her out.
With world No65 Kuzmova out of the picture, Watson was the on-paper favourite, but the Brit revealed, after her win, that it had not felt like an advantage at the time, as she had been given just 55 minutes warning of the switch of opponent.
This was despite the British camp having word from at least 1pm – a full three hours before play began – that Kuzmova had organised a press conference an hour ahead of her scheduled start time, signalling a significant chance she was going to pull out.
Though they could not have predicted for certain who would start in her place, it seemed baffling not a single member of the team’s entourage had given Watson the heads up to consider other options.
After her match, when told of the prior notice of Kuzmova’s probable substitution, Watson was shocked: “Really? Oh my God, that’s so bad.”
“I found out that I was playing Rebecca
today at literally five past three, because I remember looking at the time and going straight onto YouTube to watch videos of her. It’s quite stressful because in my mind [I was going] to play Viktoria. Non-stop in the morning practice I was asking questions about [her], I was talking to Harriet about where she thinks I should serve. I had never played [Sramkova] before or seen her play.”
To Watson’s credit, the short notice did not hinder her performance. She brought a noticeably improved serve to the match – almost 80 per cent first serving percentage in the opening set, where she had just one in two on Friday
– and was also sliding on the surface more easily than she had previously.
A visibly nervous Sramkova, ranked outside the top 200, had a shaky start and Watson steamrollered into the lead, bagelling the frustrated Slovakian in the first set. Though Sramkova improved after that, Watson kept her composure and luckily the Slovakian’s aggression led to erratic shots and Watson secured the win, 6-0, 7-5.
Britain were still in it, but the harder test remained. Dart had been involved in an epic the previous day, and was facing a player, in Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who had comprehensively beaten Watson on Friday. If Dart was tired, though, it did not show. Schmiedlova moved her all around the court, but the Briton’s defence was as impressive as it had been against Kuzmova the previous night. She battled from a break down to even things up at 5-5 in the first set, but Schmiedlova had the edge. She broke Dart to avoid a tiebreaker and took the lead.
Though Dart kept her form thereafter, she will be kicking herself for not taking her chances on the big points, converting zero of six chances to break in the second set. Schmiedlova went 5-2 up instead and, though Dart saved two match points, it was not enough, the rubber ending 7-5, 6-3.