The Aegon GB Fed Cup team fell 2-1 to hosts Hungary in their third match of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Europe/Africa Zone Group I competition at the Syma Event and Conference Centre in Budapest, Hungary.
The first singles match saw British No.3 Heather Watson beat Reka-Luka Jani 6-4, 6-1. Watson got the only break of the opening set in the 10th game and won the last five games of the 75-minute match. Watson said after the match: “Today I hit a lot of volleys because that was the best way to play her. I was a bit sluggish to start but happy I finished well.”
In the second singles, Hungary’s Timea Babos scored a marathon two-hour, 35-minute 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Britain’s top player Johanna Konta. The Brit served for the match up 6-4 (breaking once in the fifth game) 6-5 (breaking at 5-all) without facing a break point all match, when suddenly she dropped her serve and conceded the ensuing tiebreak after leading 5-1. Up 2-1 in the decider, Konta was treated off court for a left leg injury and Babos got the break she needed at 2-all despite some valiant fighting from the Brit. After Konta said, “I’m sad to not have closed that out when I had my chance however credit to her she served incredibly well and the atmosphere this evening in the stadium was fantastic.”
In the deciding doubles, the Hungarian team of Babos and Jani defeated the British pairing of Jocelyn Rae and Tara Moore 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in two hours, 24 minutes in an identical late finish (11:19pm CET) to Wednesday. The British pairing did well to fight back from a break down in the 2nd set at 4-2 to level at 4-all and 5-all only to drop serve in the 12th game and were broken only at 3-4 in the final set.
Afterwards Captain Judy Murray said: “Another late finish and unfortunately not the result we were after, but Heather played a solid match to beat Jani and Jo played a terrific match to get herself so close to winning the second one. The biggest surprise for me was how well Joss and Tara played, for the first time together and we are continuing to aim at building our team for the future. Tomorrow we have a difficult task against Austria but we will leave it all out on the court as we fight for our relegation place.”
On Sunday at 4pm CET, Great Britain will face Austria to determine their placing in the 9th-12th relegation play-off. The Aegon GB Fed Cup Team is comprised of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Tara Moore, Jocelyn Rae, and led by Judy Murray in her third year of captaincy.
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