Australia’s quest to win a place in the Billie Jean King Cup finals is off to the worst possible start with spearhead Talia Gibson a shock loser to British teen Mika Stojsavljevic.
Gibson was expected to get the tie at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena off to a flying start on Friday for the home side, but she fell 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to the lowly-ranked 17-year-old.
World No 56 Gibson took over as Australia’s No 1 following injury to Maya Joint and arrived at the tie in sparkling form.
The 21-year-old had recently beaten five top 20-ranked players and rocketed to her career-high ranking.
With the visitors missing their four best players, the Australians were hot favourites to advance to the Finals in China in September, but that was quickly dismissed by big-serving Stojsavljevic.
Also making her BJK debut, Gibson had a nervous start and went down a break before clawing her way back to level at 3-3.
The pair went toe-to-toe through the first set but world No 275 Stojsavljevic steamed through the tiebreak, racing to a 4-0 lead on a backhand error by Gibson before closing it out 7-4.
The young Brit carried that momentum into the second set, going ahead 5-2, before powerhouse Gibson found her touch and broke her twice to level at 5-5.
Stojsavljevic sent down three aces in her haul of 12 for the match to survive a marathon game, including five break points, and then broke Gibson again to wrap up the match.
Australia’s world No 80 Kimberly Birrell will take on 173-ranked Harriet Dart in the second singles.
Dart will then partner Jodie Burrage in Saturday’s live doubles match against experienced Australian duo Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez, with the reverse singles scheduled for later in the day.
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