By Janice North
Over the course of this weekend, the Billie Jean King Cup would see 18 teams competing in qualifier ties at nine locations around the world for a place in the finals in November, with 2022 champions and runners-up, Switzerland and Australia having already gained automatic qualification. Our matches for this weekend were to take place in Coventry against France, who being ranked no 5 in the world, sit 10 ranking positions higher than Team GB. With Emma Raducanu choosing not to play in favour of her preparation for the clay court season, our team comprised of Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart, Heather Watson (who did not play), and for the doubles, Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls.
Of the approximately 60 BATS members who were travelling to the tie, many of us arrived at the Britannia Hotel on Thursday afternoon in good time to meet up in the bar that evening for drinks and a catch up.
We met at 7 and then while some stayed in the hotel to eat, several others made the short journey round the corner to the local Wetherspoon’s, housed in a rather magnificent Tudor building. Standing adjacent to Coventry Cathedral, The Flying Standard was to become our principal hostelry of choice for our breakfast, dinner and drinks throughout the weekend, mainly due to the excellent value for money and speed with which the food was served, although a few of us were just a little disappointed to learn that one of our stock favourites, their delicious macaroni cheese was no longer on the menu. We did however spend a very enjoyable evening anticipating the challenging weekend ahead for Team GB.
While the Britannia Hotel was rather basic and more than a little reminiscent of the legendary Fawlty Towers, it was however situated in the perfect location for us to be able to reach the Coventry Building Society Arena via a fairly swift bus journey of a little over twenty minutes.
On Day One, the first match to be played was between Katie Boulter and Caroline Garcia, a tough match up for Team GB, but which Katie played with courage and real competitiveness, aided at times by it being clear that the talented Garcia was playing well below her usual standard. After losing the first set in a tie break, Katie fought back to level the match, again with the second set also going to a tie break.
After an extremely competitive third set, yet another tiebreak loomed, but sadly despite a fantastic performance from Katie, Garcia prevailed, winning a third consecutive tie break to give France an early lead of 1-0. It is fair to say that Katie played well above her ranking and gave Garcia quite a fright.
Next up was Harriet Dart vs Alize Cornet. Amazingly, this match also yielded two more tiebreaks, although sadly Harriet succumbed to Cornet in straight sets, despite the latter appearing to struggle with some sort of leg injury. The resulting score line at the end of day one of 2-0 to France left us with a very steep hill to climb the next day if we were to qualify.
However we did enjoy an unexpected treat in the form of being able to witness a presentation by the Duchess of Gloucester on behalf of the LTA to the legendary Sue Barker in recognition of all her amazing achievements and contribution to women’s tennis.
Two matches consisting of five consecutive tie breaks, which in itself is a very unusual statistic, meant that play on day one did not finish until just after 8:30pm. We dispersed to find our way back to the hotel and then headed back to the Flying Standard for a very late dinner. Even though the food arrived in its usual timely manner, it was far too late for most of us to be dining, so the remainder of the evening was fairly brief.
On Saturday, we went back to Wetherspoons for our second consecutive breakfast, which was absolutely delicious. The breakfast menu had a wide choice of cooked food and coffee “on tap”, which we thoroughly enjoyed again.
Play started earlier on Saturday at 12:00 due to the potential of there being three matches to be played. Team GB would have to win all three rubbers on day two if they were to reach the Billie Jean King Cup finals in November.
First up was the reverse of the previous day’s matches, meaning a quick turnaround for Harriet Dart for her match against Caroline Garcia, the latter of whom was clearly back on form, halting the successive tiebreaks with a very definitive first set win of 6-1. Harriet however fought back to take the second set to a tiebreak and successfully levelling the match. Sadly though, Garcia herself fought back once again to also take the third set by 6-1, and in so doing the match, taking France to an unassailable match victory over GB of 3-0. Harriet was visibly distressed after the match, despite fighting very hard for her team in a very difficult match for her.
After a short break, it was the turn of the doubles pairs, which although effectively a dead rubber, produced a fantastic competitive match. Alicia and Olivia were to play Kristina Mladenovic and Clara Burel.
The British pair took the first set 7-5, but the French came back to level the match at 3-6 in the second. The match then went to an 11 point tiebreaker. Burel and Mladenovich quickly acquired a significant lead and just as we thought all was lost, Alicia and Olivia hung in there and staged a monumental comeback to win the match by 11-9, handing Team GB their only victory for the tie, finishing with a final score of 3-1 to France, presenting them with qualification for the finals in November and meaning that Team GB will have to compete in a play-off tie later in the year in order to book a place in the 2024 qualifiers.
Team GB captain, Anne Keothavong said after the match how proud she was of the players and that they gave it their best against much higher ranked opponents, a sentiment shared by all of us who were there cheering them on.
Bravo Team GB. Onwards and upwards.
