Brit special/konta and Boulter dig deep to secure Fed Cup promotion for GB

Great Britain will play at Fed Cup’s top table for the first time in 26 years after Johanna Konta and Katie Boulter both produced comebacks to secure a 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan.

The play-off was tied at 1-1 overnight at London’s Copper Box after Boulter was unable to take three match points in a heartbreaking defeat by Kazakh No 1 Yulia Putintseva on Saturday.

The visitors looked set to take a 2-1 lead when Putintseva led Konta by 4-1 and two breaks of serve in the deciding set of yesterday’s first rubber, only for the British No 1 to win the last four games in a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.

It was Konta’s 11th singles success in a row in the competition and meant victory for Boulter against Zarina Diyas would at last get Britain over a hurdle they have fallen at in four of the last seven years.

It had been in doubt whether the 22-year-old would even take to the court after she picked up an injury during Saturday’s match, which a telltale hot water bottle revealed to be to her right hip and lower back area.

She was still using the hot water bottle during changes

0 Heather Watson, Harriet Dart, Katie Swan, Johanna Konta, Katie Boulter and GB captain Anne Keothavong celebrate their victory.

of ends but, with Heather Watson so out of form, captain Anne Keothavong clearly felt Boulter remained her best option.

That looked a questionable decision when she trailed by a set and a break to 107thranked Diyas but Boulter has proved herself quite the competitor in her fledgling

career and she battled back to win 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-1.

Diyas had only lost one of 15 Fed Cup singles clashes prior to this weekend but she helped her opponent with a double fault on set point in the second set and Boulter seized the initiative in the decider, clinching victory on her third match point with

an ace. The victory currently secures Britain a place in World Group II, although the format of the competition for next season has not yet been decided. Proposals for a 12-team finals in the mould of the revamped Davis Cup are reportedly at an advanced stage.

Meanwhile, Fabio Fognini

became the first Italian to clinch an ATP Masters 1000 title with a straight-sets win over Dusan Lajovic of Serbia in Monte Carlo yesterday.

The 31-year-old followed up his surprise victory against Rafael Nadal with a 6-3, 6-4 success on the red clay at the Rolex Montecarlo Masters.