Fed Cup: Katie Boulter gets Britain’s new generation off to winning start against Slovenia

Boulter, playing in her first Fed Cup singles rubber, beat Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 6-4, 6-2 in front of a noisy crowd on the opening day of this week’s Europe/Africa Zone Group One matches

Katie Boulter came through in straight sets (Getty Images for LTA)

The emergence of a promising group of young British players has brought renewed hope for the women’s game in this country so it was fitting that Katie Boulter got the home team off to a winning start in the Fed Cup here on Wednesday.

Boulter, playing in her first Fed Cup singles rubber, beat Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 6-4, 6-2 in front of a noisy crowd on the opening day of this week’s Europe/Africa Zone Group One matches at the University of Bath. With Johanna Konta going on to give Anne Keothavong’s team an unassailable 2-0 lead by beating Dalila Jakupovic 7-6, 6-2 in the second singles rubber, it was the perfect start to Britain’s first tie on home soil for 26 years.

Heather Watson was ruled out of the first day’s play because of illness, but the likelihood was that Boulter would have been selected ahead of her anyway for the opening singles rubber. Ranked 27 places above Watson at No 83 in the world, Boulter is one of four British women aged between 19 and 22 who are in the top 200.

Boulter, who was born four years after Britain last staged a Fed Cup tie, showed few signs of nerves as an 1,800 capacity crowd helped ensure a memorable singles debut for the 22-year-old from Leicester, whose only previous experience in this competition had been two doubles victories last year.

Juvan, who is ranked No 169 in the world, is four years younger than Boulter but has more Fed Cup experience, having made her debut in the competition two years ago.

Boulter served well and hit the ball with confidence both from the baseline and on her occasional forays to the net. The Briton made the only break of the opening set in the fifth game thanks to some bold returns and took immediate control of the second set before closing out victory after 62 minutes with a big forehand winner.

“I think I’m someone who rises to the occasion,” Boulter said afterwards. “I think the support makes a huge difference. It’s the little things like that which really go in your favour and give you the confidence to go after your shots.”

Boulter said that making her Fed Cup singles debut had been “better than I ever expected”. She added: “I’d thought about this moment for a very long time. Just being part of the team last year and being around everyone really made me want to play here.”

It might have been just as well for Britain that Tamara Zidansek, Slovenia’s leading player, is not here this week. Jakupovic is their lead singles player in her absence and the world No 86 pushed Konta hard in a 78-minute opening set.

Both players dropped serve four times in the first set, with Jakupovic broken on both occasions when she served for it. The Slovenian had three set points when she led 6-3 in the tie-break, but Konta kept her nerve and eventually won the tie-break 9-7 with a thumping forehand into a corner. The second set was more straightforward as the world No 39 finally made her greater power tell.

“Jo did a great job to come through that first set,” Keothavong said afterwards. “It wasn’t easy, but Jo’s the ultimate pro. She’s focused, she’s been there, she knows how to do it. With someone like her, you have to respect that she knows what she’s doing.

“It’s important for me when I sit there that I don’t say too much, to allow my emotions to get the better of me and everything that’s going on. She closed out the match and she came through strong in that second set.”

Keothavong added: “I thought Katie Boulter was brilliant, making her singles debut in front of a home crowd and getting the win, that’s something special. Once she got through those first few games, she managed to settle and she was the stronger player. She’s improved so much over the past 12 months and I really believe 2019 will be a special year for her.”

Britain are attempting to return to the Fed Cup’s elite World Group for the first time since 1993, but will have to clear plenty of hurdles before they achieve that.

Eight countries are competing here this week in two round-robin pools. The countries which top the two pools will meet on Saturday, with the winners of that match going forward to a play-off in April for a place in World Group Two. The opponents in the play-off will be one of the losers from this weekend’s Group Two first-round matches.

In their second round-robin match here on Thursday Britain will take on Greece, who could prove their toughest opponents in the pool. The Greece team includes Maria Sakkari, the world No 38. Hungary will be Britain’s last round-robin opponents on Friday.

Croatia are favourites to win the other pool and made a winning start by beating Turkey 2-1, though the tie went to a deciding doubles. Serbia, who beat Georgia 2-1, meet Croatia on Friday in the match likely to decide the second pool.