Australia’s hopes of winning their first Billie Jean King Cup title in 50 years came to a crushing end on Sunday as they suffered a 2-0 defeat by Slovakia.
After Kimberly Birrell was beaten 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-3 by Viktoria Hruncakova in a bruising tussle that lasted over two and a half hours, Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic struggled badly with a left leg injury as she was dismantled 6-1, 6-2 by the in-form Rebecca Sramkova.
“Obviously it’s disappointing,” said Sam Stosur, the Australian captain.
“Obviously I think Kim was very, very close to getting that first match our way, which was great. I thought it was a really good, quality match.
“That was unfortunate to be down 1-0, and then I think it was pretty obvious from 4-0 Ajla was really struggling. It was a tough situation to then be trying to get ourselves back into the tie when clearly you can see that your No 1 player is pretty hampered out there. Not the way you ever want it to go.”
Despite last winning the title in 1974, Australia have performed extremely well at the Billie Jean King Cup in recent years, finishing as finalists in 2019 and 2022. Tomljanovic led the 2022 team in a run that included a comfortable win over Slovakia.
This time, however, the United States team had been heavily favoured to reach the finals from the top half but on Friday Slovakia pulled off a massive 2-1 upset win over them. After Sramkova forced a tiebreak by upsetting world No 11 Danielle Collins, Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova closed out a spectacular 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 win over the pair of Ashlyn Krueger and Taylor Townsend.
Perhaps noting how Hruncakova had risen to the occasion in doubles against the United States, the Slovak captain, Matej Liptak, opted to substitute her in singles for Renata Jamrichova. Hruncakova has previously been ranked inside the top 50 but world No 115 Birrell entered the match as the clear favourite against the Slovak, who is currently ranked No 241. The substitution turned out to be a smart decision as Hruncakova served 15 aces and held her nerve after three incredibly tight sets to close out an important victory.
Kimberly Birrell was expected to win but failed to deliver. Photograph: Europa Press Sports/Europa Press/Getty Images
“It’s strategy,” Liptak said. “I know all my girls, and I tried to choose the right ones. So it happens. I’m so happy about that. I know what can I expect from them and how they play these matches. “
With the tie hanging by a thread, it quickly became clear that Tomljanovic was still struggling with the lower left leg injury she suffered in the final weeks of her season. Although she fought until the end, she simply could not keep up with a quality opponent in the best form of her life.
“It didn’t feel good in the moment,” said Tomljanovic. “I don’t really have much more info for you than that. Definitely felt really hard to get back on track after that, because, you know, having a previous injury there, it never feels good to feel something go wrong.
“Yeah, I mean, I always bounce back, so I will, but it’s definitely a tough day. It almost feels like I would have taken this a bit easier if it was just a regular tournament for myself, but you don’t want to let your teammates down. So it was a pretty bad ending to today.”
Slovakia awaits either Great Britain or Canada in Tuesday afternoon’s semi-final, with a massive opportunity ahead for each of the three remaining teams in the top half.
“It’s another big country which we beat, and I’m so proud for the girls, for our team members, for [our] country, because we are a small country. For us, it’s really meaning so much. So I’m happy,” said Liptak.
∎