By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday November 14, 2024
Slovakia battled back from 1-0 down to hand Team USA and early exit at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Malaga, Spain.
Slovakia advances to play Australia in the quarterfinals, while the Americans will await its draw for the 2025 qualifying round.
Lindsay Davenport's Team USA squad, which didn't bring any of its three Top-10 players (Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro) started emphatically, getting Taylor Townsend’s first ever BJK Cup singles victory, 7-5, 6-4 over youngster Renata Jamrichova, but Rebecca Sramkova topped Danielle Collins 6-2, 7-5 to force deciding doubles.
Viktoria Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova then topped Townsend and Ashlyn Krueger 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to send Slovakia through.
“We wanted to win so much, we gave everything,” Hruncakova said. “I have no words.”
“The ranking is not important, but the heart and the team [is],” said Mihalikova. “We beat the favorites and we’re very happy.”
U.S. captain Davenport said she was proud of her team's effort and spirit.
"We obviously have high expectations, but I think we knew our top five players weren't here," Davenport said. "I think that this team was excited to see what they could do. I thought if we could just kind of hang around -- I knew this one was going to be tough. They are big hitters. Was hopeful then to give ourselves a chance against Australia, but sometimes it doesn't work out like that.
"Like I said, two of the five players dealing with injuries, all of a sudden we're down to three. They competed so hard.
"They did their absolute best. Gosh, they saved so many match points, almost were able to get it back, but just dug themselves into too deep a hole.
"Super proud of how they kind of handled the week. A tough night, no doubt. But, you know, hopefully we'll be back next year and ready to kind of go to work again."
Earlier on Thursday Japan defeated Romania 2-1, as Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi won the deciding doubles point 6-1, 7-5 over Elena Gabriela Ruse and Monica Niculescu.
Japan will face Italy in the quarterfinals.