Nicholls frustration as fine margins put paid to dream

DEVASTATED Olivia Nicholls was left to bemoan the honesty of British line judges after being called for a foot fault with the Billie Jean King Cup semi-final against Australia on a knife edge at 6-6 in the sudden-death super tiebreak.

The serve was returned anyway, and the GB duo failed to win another point after that as unlikely hopes of glory were extinguished at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.

‘You’d think the British linesman might have given me that one at six-all,’ said Nicholls, who admitted that she does have a tendency for her foot to stray across the line. ‘I don’t think we could have given any more, and we couldn’t have come any closer.

‘We’re up against two Grand Slam champions. Storm (Sanders) is top 10. We handled the occasion so well.

‘If we had been walked over, it would have hurt more than it does to lose in the fashion in which we just lost.’

The British team were only in this week’s 12-nation finals due to a wildcard given to the country that does the hosting. Captain Anne Keothavong insisted that the standard of the team’s performance suggested that the event should return to the UK, even though a financial loss is sure to have been sustained.

‘That’s a no-brainer,’ she said. ‘We are very grateful to the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) for investing in this competition. Without that, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity here this week.

‘I think the way the players have conducted themselves and gone about it and approached each match, shows how much they want it and how much they are ready to perform.

‘They absolutely deserve it.

‘I think we have to try and keep things in perspective. I don’t know how many people gave us much of a chance to even come through the group stages.

‘It’s going to hurt the players for a while, but they’ll get over it.

‘They can still hold their heads high because they really have shown what they are capable of under a huge amount of pressure to deliver, and in the end it came down to a few points.’