Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong enjoys winning start as Great Britain whitewash Portugal 3-0 in Estonia
British No1 Johanna Konta praised the leadership of new captain Anne Keothavong after Great Britain made the perfect start to a gruelling week of Fed Cup competition on Wednesday.
Konta’s defeat of Michelle Larcher de Brito and further wins for Heather Watson and the doubles pair of Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae earned the team a 3-0 victory over Portugal in Tallinn.
Keothavong, 33, is in charge of Great Britain’s bid to return to the second tier of the competition after a 25-year absence, having succeeded Judy Murray in November.
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“I think she is doing a tremendous job of bringing us together,” said world No10 Konta, whose withdrawal due to illness on the eve of the same stage last year is thought to have frustrated Murray.
“It’s always a tricky one, because we spend most of the year as individuals, so for her to do such a good job with us, it says a lot about her. We’ve got lots of team bonding in the evenings, lots of funny things going on.”
Beating Portugal keeps Great Britain, who face Latvia on Thursday and Turkey on Friday, on track to top their Europe-Africa Group I round-robin pool and qualify for Saturday’s promotion play-offs.
Keothavong (right) succeeded Murray (left) as Fed Cup captain last year (Source: Getty)
Victory in that rubber would see them reach the World Group II play-offs in April, their shot at returning to the Fed Cup’s second division for the first time since 1992.
Australian Open quarter-finalist Konta beat Larcher de Briton 6-2, 6-4 and Watson put Great Britain into an unassailable 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Ines Murta.
Robson and Rae wrapped up the whitewash by defeating Larcher de Brito and Murta 6-2, 6-3.
“I’m really happy to have got the match under my belt. It was a high-level match, and it got better and better as the match went on,” Konta added.
“She made me work for it in the end and I’m really happy to have come through for the team. We’ll try to come back stronger every day.”