Agnes Szavay d. Katie O'Brien 61 62

We are very unlucky to be in a Group with all the other teams having strong top 50 players, virtually ensuring that we have to win the second singles and the doubles - and there we are missing Claire Curran. All the teams in this Group would feel they had a good chance of beating all 4 teams in Group A. The Denmark match is scheduled to start at 3pm.

Here is the LTA report:

GB team lose to Fed Cup hosts

Great Britains second Fed Cup tie against Hungary ended in another narrow defeat by two rubbers to one in Budapest this evening.

After a win for each team in the singles, Elena Baltacha and Mel South lost the final rubber 2-6 2-6 to Agnes Szavay and Greta Arn to give Hungary a 2-1 victory in the tie. The Hungarian pair were strong throughout and Szavay in particular continued her impressive form from her earlier singles match.

Earlier in the day, British number two Anne Keothavong followed up on her victory the previous day and again got the GB team off to a fantastic start by beating the world number 122, Arn, 7-6(5) 7-5. After an even first few games that went with serve, Keothavong broke to go 5-3 up before Arn broke twice to serve for the set at 6-5. Anne broke back and took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreak before holding on to take the tiebreak 7-5. Arn raised her game at the start of the second set breaking straight away to go 2-0 up but Keothavong broke back straight away and broke again in the 7th game before being broken herself when serving for the match at 5-4. Anne then broke Arn again and held her nerve to win the second set 7-5

In the second rubber Katie OBrien had a very tough match against the hugely impressive, Agnes Szavay. Katie battled hard but ended up being over-powered 1-6 2-6 by the Hungarian, currently ranked 20, who was very strong throughout the singles and doubles and looks destined for the Top 10.

Carl Maes, the LTAs Head of Womens Tennis, was impressed by the form of both girls in the singles matches.

Annes performance and certainly Katies tennis at the start of her match were good enough to say that, with this level our girls last year would have won all of their matches. We have seen some big progress from our girls in 2007 but we have had a very tough draw this year.

Carl Maes, LTA Head of Womens Tennis




-- Edited by DavidC at 23:44, 2008-01-31

NB 4:00 pm Court 4:
Great-Britain- Denmark
Anne Keothavong- Hanne-Skak Jensen
Katie O'Brien- Caroline Wozniacki
Baltacha/Keothavong- Dyrberg/Wozniacki

Bit of a change up with Anne coming in for Mel in the doubles.

-- Edited by wolf at 18:46, 2008-02-01

Not sure why you think this sucks for her. She's gone out there and picked up a few wins against decent opposition, makes her Fed Cup record look very nice.

Hopefully the girls can avoid relegation, either way well done girls. At least they bothered to turn up in the face of a tough task.

Caroline Wozniacki d. Katie O'Brien 62 16 62

Good effort from Katie. Win the doubles and we avoid relegation. Lose and we have to beat Portugal on Saturday afternoon to avoid that fate.