Great Britain’s hopes of making the Billie Jean King Cup Finals ended after Harriet Dart lost to Caroline Garcia, as France moved into an unassailable 3-0 lead.
France entered the second day at the Coverntry Building Society Arena in full control after narrow wins on Friday for Garcia against Katie Boulter and Alize Cornet over Dart.
Boulter was denied victory in a thriller against Garcia, before Dart was beaten by Cornet on the opening day.
Garcia needed almost three and a half hours to beat Boulter, but the world No 5 looked set for an easy afternoon as she won the first set in less than 30 minutes.
But Dart, who is GB’s highest-ranked player in the absence of Emma Raducanu, held her own in the second set and saved two match points in a tense tie-break to take the game to a decider.
The British No 3 was aiming to produce the same heroics she did in Glasgow last November when Britain unexpectedly reached the semi-finals for the first time in more than 40 years, but Garcia regrouped in the decider to win 6-1 6-7 (10) 6-1.
Dart has found wins very hard to come by so far in 2023 and she was overpowered in the opening set, losing all three of her service games.
But she dug in at the start of the second and confidently held through to a dramatic tie-break, which saw Dart unable to take three set points and then save two Garcia chances at match point before the Frenchwoman sent a forehand sailing out of court.
Garcia must have wondered how she was still out there but she channelled her frustration into breaking Dart at the first opportunity and showed her class to pull away.
This tie was always likely to be an uphill task given the respective rankings of the countries’ players and Britain’s chances were further reduced by Emma Raducanu – their only top-100 player – prioritising preparing for the clay-court season.
Britain were given a place in the finals last year despite losing in qualifying after the Lawn Tennis Association stepped in to host the event, but there will be no repeat this year, and captain Anne Keothavong will hope she has more in-form players to pick from for the relegation play-offs in November.
It would be hard to argue Britain currently belong at the top table of women’s tennis and the priority for Dart, Boulter, Katie Swan and Jodie Burrage must be to improve their rankings in order for them to face this calibre of player a lot more often.
The British pairing of Olivia Nicholls and Alicia Barnett and France’s Clara Burel and Kristina Mladenovi will play the final rubber of the tie.
