Great Britain 'gutted' after dramatic loss extends 43-year wait

Great Britain's hopes of reaching the Billie Jean King Cup final for the first time in 43 years were ended as they suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat by a spirited Slovakia team yesterday.

- Tumaini Carayol

"Gutted," said Anne Keothavong, the team captain. "I think we're all absolutely gutted. We came into this event really believing that we had a good shot at it, and unfortunately we fell short. We came up against a better team. But it's still pretty raw right now. It's quite difficult to find the right words."

The day had started positively as Emma Raducanu won her third match of the week in Malaga, this time defeating Slovakia's Viktoria Hruncakova 6-4, 6-4 to establish a 1-0 lead for Great Britain.

Katie Boulter continued to perform at an extremely high level early on against the in-form Rebecca Sramkova before losing control of her serve. She was eventually reeled back in by a gritty, resourceful performance from Sramkova 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

With Raducanu and Boulter proving so decisive for Great Britain throughout their run this year, the doubles team of Heather Watson and Olivia Nicholls had not been required to compete at all in the competition this year. Thrust into fray under pressure in such an important match, the pair started slowly and never recovered as they were comprehensively defeated 6-2, 6-2 by Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova.