Australia knocked out of Billie Jean King Cup as Britain clinch upset doubles win
An understrength Great Britain stunned Australia in Melbourne, sealing a Billie Jean King Cup qualifying tie with a straight-sets doubles victory that booked a place at September’s finals in China and eliminated last year’s semi-finalists from contention. Jodie Burrage and Harriet Dart defeated Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez 6-3, 6-4 at John Cain Arena on Saturday, clinching an unassailable 3-0 lead.
It is the second year in a row Australia have missed the eight-nation finals. Playing together for the first time, Burrage and Dart recovered from an early break and reeled off five straight games to take the opening set. A seesawing second set stayed tight until Burrage held serve to close out the match.
“We knew it was going to be an incredibly tough match,” Dart told Nine after the win, noting their opponents’ doubles pedigree and calling the chance to represent Great Britain and reach the finals “kind of surreal.” The doubles capped a commanding start by the visitors.
On Friday, Dart, ranked world No 173, rallied past Kimberly Birrell 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, backing up 17-year-old debutant Mika Stojsavljevic’s 7-6 (4), 7-5 upset of Talia Gibson. Stojsavljevic arrived ranked 219 places below the world No 56, who had knocked off five top-20 opponents in the lead-up.
Australia had entered as strong favourites against a British team missing their four best players, with three opting to focus on the European clay-court swing. At 0-2 down, history was against the hosts: only nine teams have come back from that deficit since the best-of-five format was introduced in 1995, and Burrage and Dart duly finished the job.
After the tie was decided, Australia’s Emerson Jones restored some pride with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Katie Swan in a dead-rubber singles match. Jones, 17, replaced Maya Joint in the squad after the top-ranked Australian withdrew with a back injury, becoming one of the youngest Billie Jean King Cup debutants in the competition’s history.
Great Britain now advance to the finals in China in September, while Australia must regroup after a second successive absence from the season-ending event.