Teenager Mika Stojsavljevic enjoyed a perfect Billie Jean King Cup debut as she swept aside a player ranked more than 200 places above her to give Great Britain a surprise lead over Australia in Melbourne.
The 17-year-old, who is ranked 275th in the world, beat Talia Gibson, another talented young player, 7-6(4) 7-5 in the singles opener of the three-match qualifying tie.
Gibson has shot up the rankings to 56th in the world after an excellent start to her season and was the heavy favourite on John Cain Arena, although both players were making their national team debuts.
The 21-year-old came through qualifying and beat three top-20 players in a dream run to the Indian Wells quarter-finals, before beating another two, including former world No 1 Naomi Osaka, to make the round of 16 at the Miami Open.
But Stojsavljevic was more than a match for her and the home crowd in Melbourne, serving strongly, going up 3-1 in the first set and recovering from letting that lead slip to win a tie-break.
The second set was a similar story as Stojsavljevic stormed to a 5-2 lead before being pegged back to 5-5 with two breaks of serve going against her.
But she served three aces and saved five break points in a crucial game, before going on to break Gibson again and convert her first match point.
She was overcome with emotion afterwards and said: “It feels amazing. I can’t believe it. I can’t even remember the last point. I had amazing support from the side and managed to get through.
“Going into it, I knew she’d have the home ground. I’m grateful to the people supporting GB today.
“It was a good match. We have very similar games, both quite aggressive, so I’m happy I got through it.”
Gibson said: “It’s my first time playing a match in the Billie Jean King Cup for Team Australia, so there was obviously some nerves out there today and not the way I would have liked to have played and not the result that I would have liked to have had happen.”
Stojsavljevic, the 2024 US Open junior champion, is the second-lowest-ranked player of a GB side missing all of its big names, with British No 5 Harriet Dart the highest-ranked member of the squad in Melbourne.
Emma Raducanu, the injured Sonay Kartal, Katie Boulter and Fran Jones, all in the world’s top 100, opted out of taking part in the qualifying tie, which is held on hard courts in Australia just as the European clay-court swing is getting underway.
Dart then maintained GB’s advantage by coming back from a set down against Kimberly Birrell to win 4-6 6-3 6-3 in just shy of two and a half hours.
Momentum swung repeatedly between the two as both players struggled on serve, with 16 breaks of serve in total. Dart broke the Australian No 4, ranked nearly 100 places above her at 80th, at 3-3 in the deciding set and claimed the next two games to hold on for victory.
Britain now needs to win just one more match to progress to the eight-team Finals in Shenzhen, China, in September.
The tie concludes on Saturday with a doubles match, with Dart partnering Jodie Burrage against the experienced pairing of Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez, and two more singles matches.
