The Aegon GB Fed Cup team have defeated Lativa 2-1 in their opening match of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Europe/Africa Zone Group I competition at the Syma Event and Conference Centre in Budapest, Hungary.
In the first singles match, British No.3 Heather Watson beat 16 year-old Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1. There were seven service breaks in the opening set, Watson recovering from dropping her serve in the opening game to lead 4-1 and 5-3, eventually getting the decisive break in the 12th game.
Despite dropping her serve again to start the second, the Briton finished strongly taking the last six games. Speaking after the match, Watson said: “It was a very tough match and I knew it would be. She’s a young, dangerous player and a strong girl for only 16 and came out swinging early. I was finding my first serve a bit tricky but ended the match well and the support from the team and home fans was absolutely terrific.”
In the second singles rubber, putting the two highest ranked players against each other, British No.2 Johanna Konta staged a dramatic fight back to defeat Diana Marcinkevica 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, coming back from 2-5 down in the final set and saving a match point on her own serve in the 10th game.
In the opening set, one break in the eighth game gave Britain the edge but Latvia quickly moved in front 5-1 in the second set. Despite Konta breaking back twice, she dropped her serve in the 10th game, was forced into a decider where Latvia seemingly got the decisive break to lead 3-1. Konta was thrilled with her comeback: “I was really happy to pull that out for myself and most importantly the team. I knew I had to keep fighting and Judy reminded me of that.”
In a dramatic dead doubles rubber, finishing at almost 11:20pm CET, Latvia saved a match point in the second set to prevent a 3-0 whitewash to win 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(5). Marcinkevica and Ostapenko lost the first four games of the match, then rescued match point serving at 4-5 in the second and broke Watson in the fifth game of the decider to lead 5-3.
The Britons fought back to take a 6-5 lead and again from 2-5 down in the tiebreak to level at 5-all only to drop the final two points in an entertaining match.
Afterwards Captain Judy Murray said: “A win’s a win. Heather kicked us off in fine style going 1-0 up against one of the best juniors in the world, Jelena Ostapenko who possesses one of the best cross court backhands I have ever seen. Then Johanna fought really well and never gave up to dig herself out of a big hole at 5-2 down in the third set.
That gave us the 2-0 win but unfortunately we lost the lost the doubles despite winning the first set convincingly. It was getting pretty late at night and this showed the importance of keeping the energy levels up as you get tired. However we will focus the win and we play Romania on Friday, who is probably the group favourite. This will be a tough one for us as they have two very capable singles players in Simona Halep who is world No.10 and Sorana Cirstea who is inside the Top 30 but we will give it all we have got.”
On Friday at 4pm, Great Britain will face Romania, with the final group match on Saturday at 4pm against Hungary. Sixteen teams contest the tie, with each nation in a round-robin group of four.
On Sunday, each nation will play off for their final position within the tie and the winning nations from each group play off to decide the top two, who will advance to the World Group II Play-Offs on April 19-20, 2014.
The Aegon GB Fed Cup Team will comprise of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Tara Moore and Jocelyn Rae. The team will be led by Judy Murray in her third year of captaincy.
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