The team of Hannah Klugman, Mika Stojsavljevic and Hollie Smart bid to become the first British team to win the Billie Jean King Cup this week. A team featuring Heather Watson and Tara Moore reached the final in 2008.
The draw has been made and we are top seeded ahead of the USA, in a round robin group that also includes Brazil, Turkiye and Chile. Round Robin matches take place Monday - Wednesday, with knockout matches Friday to Sunday. You can find the composition of all 16 teams here
There should be links to live scores and streams from the ITF website in due course, with updates of the round robin table here
In the other tie in the group Brazil edged out Turkey 2-1 via a doubles match tiebreak. Both these nations seem stronger on paper than Chile. Turkey's number 1 Ada Kumru is JWR75. Mika won their previous encounter comfortably, but that was on hard courts. Brazil have two players ranked just outside 100. Their number 1 Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva has received quite a lot of attention as a fast rising 2010, who won a J200 on clay recently.
Problems with her second serve (it's changed, and has become more of a slower first serve) and suffering a bit to the Turkish girl's forehand in the second
Hannah has broken to take the lead twice - but twice got broken back
I know we are seeded first in this, based on rankings, but it doesnt feel like we would be favourites to take the title, would that be correct? Given the surface?
GB secure the win - Hannah won 2 and 4 and Mika dropped the opening set before winning 1-6 6-4 6-2, looks like she took a while to get comfortable there.
Hannah and Hollie won the doubles 6-4 6-3 to complete a 3-0 win over Turkiye Brazil also beat Chile 3-0, so the two nations play a decider tomorrow as to who wins the group. Winning will probably be useful to get a better draw in the quarter-finals, depending on the attitudes of Czechia and the USA to their final Round Robin matches (they are both sure to qualify and might rest a player). All 4 groups are in the same position with 2 nations having won both their matches, so the 8 quarter-finalists are known (GBR, Brazil, Japan, Romania, Czechia, Australia, USA and Germany)
I know we are seeded first in this, based on rankings, but it doesnt feel like we would be favourites to take the title, would that be correct? Given the surface?
I doubt many people will regard us as favourites , but we are certainly good enough to have a realistic chance of winning for the first time