Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage recorded straight sets wins in the doubles to send Great Britain into September’s Billie Jean King Cup final with an impressive 3–1 victory over Australia.
Dart and Burrage, teaming up for the first time, won their best-of-five qualifying match on Saturday on hard courts in Melbourne, defeating Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez 6-3, 6-4.
Great Britain won both of Friday’s singles matches, with 17-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic defeating Talia Gibson – who is ranked more than 200 places above her – in straight sets on her competition debut, before Darts came back from a set down to beat Kimberly Birrell.
They joined hosts China to become the second team to qualify for September’s eight-team final in Shenzhen, while the loser, Australia, will compete in a November play-off.
Australia’s 17-year-old Emerson Jones defeated Katie Swan 7-5, 6-3 in the fourth match, which did not diminish Britain’s happiness.
After reaching the last four in the last two editions and now pulling off an upset against Australia, team captain Anne Keothavong is confident Great Britain can “do something special” as they set their sights on a maiden title win.
“We are very happy,” Keothavong said. “I have to give credit to the players on our team for going out there and performing the way they did, keeping their composure and performing the way they did.
“(Winning the title) is always the ultimate goal. I know we have the players, strength and depth at UK to do something special in this competition.
“When we go to the finals, no matter who is on my team, we are not there to make up numbers, that’s for sure.”
