Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage won their doubles rubber in straight sets to send Great Britain through to September’s Billie Jean King Cup finals with an impressive victory against Australia.
Dart and Burrage, teaming up for the first time, defeated Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez 6-3 6-4 on Melbourne’s hard courts on Saturday to clinch an unassailable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five qualifying tie.
Great Britain had won both of Friday’s singles matches, with 17-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic stunning Talia Gibson – ranked more than 200 places above her – in straight sets on her competition debut before Dart recovered from a set down to beat Kimberly Birrell.
Australia’s Emerson Jones, 17, beat Katie Swan 7-5 6-3 in a dead-rubber singles that did nothing to dampen Britain’s delight, merely reducing their winning margin to 3-1 in a match that was played at John Cain Arena, one of the Australian Open’s main show courts.
The GB squad became the second side to qualify for September’s eight-team finals in Shenzhen, joining hosts China, with defending champions Italy confirming their place later on Saturday by completing a 3-0 win over Japan. Australia will compete in November’s play-offs instead.
Having reached the last four at the past two editions and now scored an upset against Australia, team captain Anne Keothavong is confident Great Britain can “do something special” as they eye a maiden title.
“We are overjoyed,” said Keothavong. “I have to credit the players on my team for going out there and being able to execute the way they did, hold their nerve the way they did, and perform the way they did.
“[Winning the title is] always the ultimate goal. I know we’ve got players, and strength and depth in the UK, to do something special in this competition.
“When we head to the finals, whoever is on my team, we are not there to make up the numbers, that’s for sure.”
