Great Britain reach promotion play-offs with perfect performance 
Heather Watson. Johanna Konta. Anna Smith. Jocelyn Rae. Each member of Judy Murray’s quartet deserves a mention after Great Britain pulled off an unlikely 3-0 victory over Ukraine to set up a tasty play-off clash with Victoria Azarenka’s Belarus.
Johanna Konta got the ball rolling against world No. 93 Lesia Tsurenko. The Brit had suffered an upset defeat to Turkey’s Ipek Soylu on Thursday and today she came out playing like she had a point to prove.
The British No. 2 isn’t the type of player who’s going to blow an opponent off the court. Her wins come through consistency, intelligent point construction and repetition and she ticked all three boxes against Tsurenko, who lives and dies by her power game.
At 63 2-2, Konta fended off two break points to clinch a crucial hold and from there she never looked back, sealing the win 63 62."We knew there was a lot riding on today's match,” said Konta. “Every match counted, every game counted, so I just fought hard and I was lucky enough to be playing well. The two married together and I came out with a win.
“Then Heather backed that up with an amazing win.”
Amazing is one of the many words you could use to describe Watson’s victory. At world No. 38, the 22-year-old went up against a player ranked 12 spots higher than her in the form of Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
Svitolina, it must be said, hasn’t been at her best in Budapest. The world No. 26, who came within one set of knocking Serena Williams out of the Australian Open less than two weeks ago, suffered an opening day defeat to Cagla Buyukakcay before being pushed to three sets by Liechtenstein’s Stephanie Vogt.
Against Watson, however, the Ukrainian got off to a solid start to take the opening set 6-2.But Watson, buoyed on by the British fans in the stands and her noisy bench, beating their musical instruments, came storming back. With some wonderful ball striking and equally impressive execution, she gradually drew the errors from Svitolina to secure a 26 75 64 win, putting Great Britain 2-0 up.Then came the turn of Rae and Smith, who needed to bag just one set in the doubles to send Great Britain into the play-offs.The duo, who are ranked as the world’s 96th best doubles team, came two points from locking in the coveted set in the opener, but from 5-5 in the tie-break the Ukrainian team of Svitolina and Olga Savchuk won three of the next four points to edge one set ahead.
Then at 76, 54, 40-30, with Ukraine one point from the play-offs, the drama began.A scrambling match point, which included a stretching overhead backhand volley and some excellent retrieving from Smith, went the way of Great Britain. They were hanging on by their fingertips.
Two games later, it was the turn of the Brits to close out the set and they did just that, converting on their third set point after some more remarkable tennis again from Smith, who retrieved a lob before picking up a stunning volley off her shoestrings.
They had the set they needed. Great Britain were in the play-offs.
“You’re never out until the last point,” said an exuberant Murray. “It was a tough match for my two, they are a rookie pairing in terms of Fed Cup. Today was a really good challenge for them.”
“All four of the girls did incredibly well today and it puts us into a play-off to get into the play-off for the World Group which is the main goal for everybody who is here.”
In the end, after all the talk, the set break down didn’t matter with Rae and Smith securing a superb victory 67(6) 75 64 in exactly two hours.
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