Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals AUS 0-1 SVK ...

After Thursday night’s thrilling victory over the United States, Slovakia captain Matej Liptak decided to tinker with his line-up on Sunday morning, bringing in Hruncakova to replace Renata Jamrichova in the No.2 singles position. It was a move that paid off.

Throughout the match, Hruncakova was the more proactive player, firing nine aces and a further 13 baseline winners in the opening set, which saw her surge to the finish by reeling off eight straight points.

With little to choose between the two players, the second set headed to a tiebreak and was full of mini breaks and momentum swings. The decisive one came when Birrell struck a huge forehand return winner to go up 5-3 and closed it out confidently from there.

In the decider, Hruncakova’s resilience was remarkable - she survived two break points in an eight-minute service game at 1-2 and then struck with a stunning forehand passing shot to break. From there, she was relentless with her big hitting, and came through an extraordinary final game lasting more than 10 minutes.

Birrell was fighting with everything she had, but Hruncakova’s thunderous power off the ground was overwhelming. She clinched victory to improve her formidable Billie Jean King Cup singles record to 13 wins from 16 matches.

“I’m so happy with the way I played”, Hruncakova said. “I gave everything I had, I played with all my heart.”

So Sramkova stepped on to court knowing that victory would take Slovakia through and there was barely a moment’s jeopardy in her match. She won double the number of points to Tomljanovic in a dominant opening set, which also saw the Australian forced to take a medical timeout for a knee injury after a nasty fall.

Tomljanovic fought hard in the second set but Sramkova had all the answers, keeping up her intensity and redirecting the ball for winner after winner.