CRYING SHAME
Dart left in tears as Brits’ bid for Fed Cup bonanza falls short despite Watson win
HARRIET DART was inconsolable after failing to stop Great Britain from missing out on the bonanza of the new Fed Cup final week.
Anne Keothavong’s team lost 3-1 to Slovakia in their play-off to make the £13.8million jamboree in April, their fate sealed by Dart’s 7-5, 6-3 defeat to player-of-the-tie Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Earlier, Heather Watson had kept them in the hunt, beating Rebecca Sramkova — a substitute for Viktoria Kuzmova, who had fallen ill earlier in the week.
The overall result was no disgrace for GB against a strong nation, given the non-availability of British No 1 Jo Konta. Certainly Dart could not be blamed — she fought admirably in both her matches.
So Britain will be absent from the new 12-nation finals in Budapest. Instead they go into the hat for the relegation play-offs the same week.
Watson said: ‘I found out I was playing Rebecca today at the last minute.I had never played Sramkova before or seen her play.’
It did not ultimately matter because Watson put in a much improved performance from Friday to beat an underwhelming opponent.