Harriet Dart will depart from Bratislava with her head high, her shoulders straight and the belief that she can truly cut it at top 100 level after two competitive matches against excellent clay-courters on a completely unfamiliar surface. An admirable weekend from the rookie and a solid recovery from Heather Watson were ultimately insufficient, though, as Slovakia triumphed 3-1 defeat against Great Britain in the Fed Cup Qualifier in Bratislava. After Watson pulled one win back against Rebecca Sramkova, Dart lost the decisive rubber 7-5 6-3 to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The day started with a surprise as Slovakia’s No 1, Viktoria Kuzmova, was forced to withdraw from her match against Watson just an hour before play began. Although Dart was unable to secure victory in her debut Fed Cup singles rubber against the world No 65, she clearly left her mark. Kuzmova had arrived in the competition slightly under the weather and Dart’s two hours, 55 minutes of grit on Friday pushed the Slovak over the edge.
Watson told the BBC she had been leisurely watching Netflix when she learned that her opponent had changed and she scrambled for some last-minute scouting. From being billed as the underdog against a natural clay-court player, Watson was suddenly heavily favoured against an inferior rival.
It is the type of pressure she loves and instead of feeling forced outside of her comfort zone as she did against Schmiedlova on Friday, the roles were reversed and Watson had endless time to patiently control the points against a player whose ground strokes struggled to pierce the court.
Nine years after making her Fed Cup debut, Watson now proudly boasts a record of 21-10, which places her joint second on the all-time list for Fed Cup singles wins by British women, behind only Virginia Wade. There have been plenty of tough losses against superior opponents, but throughout her Fed Cup career, Watson has expertly torn through the matches she is supposed to win. She is extremely reliable and she will always bring a certain level of quality to each match. In the majority of her contests, it is usually enough.
Watson’s victory set the stage for a must-win match for Dart in order to keep the tie alive. Although Dart’s ranking of 140 puts her above the No 199, there was no delusion in the British camp about the quality of the tie’s MVP, Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who is returning from knee surgery and had previously risen as high as No 26. While Dart was able to rely on her defence and scrappily dig out as many errors as possible from, Schmiedlova is a quick, consistent player who intelligently navigates the clay. Dart would have to be considerably more aggressive.
The importance of the encounter was reflected in how proactive both players were as they constantly prodded each other’s defences, desperate to find a way through. Dart sent laser-like beloved backhands down the line and she constantly exposed Schmiedlova’s court positioning with sweet, delicate drop shots The points were grueling and entertaining but in the end the Slovak’s superior savvy on the clay court drove her through as she broke Dart at 6-5 to steal the first set. In the second set, Schmiedlova battled through numerous tight service games, but she constantly kept her head above water and secured the win.
In the end, despite Johanna Konta’s absence looming throughout, a different surface may have yielded a great result. The surface proved the defining difference of the tie, with the Slovaks demonstrating their expertise as they outmanoeuvred Great Britain to victory.
As Slovakia head to Budapest for the Fed Cup finals alongside Switzerland, Germany, France and Australia, Great Britain will have to defend their spot in the top level of the competition at the Fed Cup play-offs in April. A loss in April and relegation to the Fed Cup zonal groups just one year after finally escaping them would be a considerably more traumatic result.
In other Fed Cup qualifiers, Serena Williams made a happy return in her first Fed Cup singles match in five years, extending her unbeaten singles record to 14-0 by soaring under pressure in both tie-breaks as she beat Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3). USA lead Latvia 2-0 after day one.
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