Konta wins it but Greeks slam ‘terrible’ officials
BRITAIN’S hopes of Fed Cup promotion remained intact last night but only after a furious row over a series of controversial line calls as they overcame Greece. The visitors’ No 1 and world top 40 player Maria Sakkari described the line judging as ‘the worst I’ve ever seen in my life’ after the tie was sealed when she lost a highquality encounter against Jo Konta 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. ‘We are used to playing with very good professionals and we come here, it’s a very high level Fed Cup tie, we need to have good professionals,’ she said. ‘They are terrible. This is unacceptable. We are playing with poor balls, and with line umpires who have never worked in their life. There were mistakes for both sides, I am not saying that they always do mistakes only for us, but of course there are more mistakes for our side.’ Greek No 2 Valentini Grammatikopoulou and captain Anastasios Bavelas were also incensed by calls in the first match when Katie Boulter prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 at Bath
University Sports Centre. The Greeks questioned why Hawk-Eye was not in use, although it would hardly be economically viable for an event this size. Great Britain will today take on Hungary in a straight shoot-out to see who can top the fourteam group and make it to tomorrow’s promotion play-off, which would be against either Croatia or Serbia.