Fed Cup: Heather Watson beats Diana Marcinkevica to give GB lead

Posted: Feb 09, 2017

Heather Watson gave Great Britain a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three Fed Cup match with Latvia in Estonia.

Watson, the world number 72, beat 307th-ranked Diana Marcinkevica 6-3 6-0 in 61 minutes in the day’s first match.

World number 10 Johanna Konta plays 35th-ranked Jelena Ostapenko, before Jocelyn Rae and Laura Robson play Marcinkevia and Ostapenko.

Great Britain beat Portugal 3-0 on Wednesday, and face Turkey in their final group match on Friday.

Fed Cup format

Unlike the men’s team competition, the Davis Cup, which has a World Group of 16 nations, the Fed Cup divides its top teams into two groups of eight – World Group I and World Group II.

The 91 nations outside the top tiers are divided into three regional zones and Britain have one chance per year to escape – a format that hugely frustrated former captain Judy Murray.

The Europe/Africa Group I event, which this year takes place in Estonia, has 14 teams divided into groups, with Poland, Croatia, Britain and Serbia the seeded nations.

Four group winners will progress to promotion play-offs on Saturday, and two nations will then qualify for World Group II play-offs in April – which could see Britain given a home Fed Cup tie for the first time since 1993.

They fell at the same stage in 2012 and 2013 – away ties in Sweden and Argentina – under the captaincy of Judy Murray.