Australia falls to Slovakia in Billie Jean King Cup quarterfinals | 18 November, 2024 | All Information | Information and Options | Information and Occasions

Ajla Tomljanovic and Kimberly Birrell have fallen brief towards an impressed Slovakia as Australia’s hopes for a fourth semifinal in 5 years finish.

Malaga, Spain, 18 November 2024 | Dan Imhoff

Australia’s focus in Malaga will flip to the Davis Cup after its Billie Jean King Cup marketing campaign ended towards Slovakia within the quarterfinals.

The Australian crew, a finalist as not too long ago as 2022 and 2019, had aimed to succeed in the semifinals for the fourth time in 5 years, however fell 2-0 to their opponents, who had surprised a depleted United States within the spherical of 16.

World No.241 Viktoria Hruncakova downed Kimberly Birrell 7-5 6-7(7) 6-3 earlier than in-form 43-ranked Rebecca Sramkova beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1 6-2 at Marten Carpena Area.

Tomljanovic’s first-set on-court tumble, which required therapy on her left knee, compounded the troublesome loss, however crew captain Sam Stosur, in her first yr on the helm, was happy with the crew’s efforts.

A tricky technique to finish our 2024 #BJKCup marketing campaign 💔

Properly achieved Ajla on preventing by way of to the top, and we want you a speedy restoration 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Sp04JdZAwa

— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 17, 2024

“I feel Kim was very, very near getting that first match our approach, which was nice. I assumed it was a very good, high quality match,” Stosur mentioned. “That was unlucky to be down 1-0, after which I feel it was fairly apparent from 4-0 Ajla was actually struggling.

“Yeah, it was a tricky state of affairs to then be making an attempt to get ourselves again into the tie when clearly you possibly can see that your No.1 participant is fairly hampered on the market. Yeah, not the way in which you ever need it to go.”

The 31-year-old Tomljanovic was again because the Australian No.1 after she picked up her second WTA 125 title in Hong Kong final month however struggled after a medical timeout within the opening set towards Sramkova, who had upset world No.11 Danielle Collins within the Slovaks’ upset of the US.

“Positively felt actually exhausting to get again on observe after that, as a result of, you understand, having a earlier harm there, it by no means feels good to really feel one thing go mistaken,” the world No.85 mentioned.

“I imply, I at all times bounce again, so I’ll, but it surely’s undoubtedly a tricky day, particularly when it nearly looks like I’d have taken this a bit simpler if it was only a common event for myself, however you don’t wish to let your teammates down.”

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World No.115 Birrell, who reached her maiden tour last in Osaka final month, battled for greater than two-and-a-half hours earlier than she went all the way down to former top-50 participant Hruncakova.

She conceded her opponent’s serve proved pivotal.

“I discovered it fairly powerful to make any inroads into her service video games till I had a few probabilities within the second set, and within the third set, too. However, yeah, credit score to her. I feel she performed rather well, particularly on the massive factors,” Birrell mentioned.

“Yeah, I imply, I fought as exhausting as I may. I left every little thing on the market. I feel I did enhance because the match went on, however I performed towards a top quality participant who simply performed higher than me on the day.”