TEAM GB Ladies will face Sweden tomorrow in the semi-finals of the World Championship European Qualifiers after Tia Norton and Hansie Ruddick clinched a dramatic victory in the decisive Group B match against Austria.
With Abi Tordoff and Lisa Phillips securing the perfect start thanks to a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the opening rubber the forecast got even brighter when Norton and Ruddick took the first set 6-0 and appeared to be in control of their encounter.
But with the British ladies becoming over-reliant on the lob and perhaps allowing themselves to be too passive, an Austrian resistance mounted and the GB pairing found themselves down 5-4 and needing to break back to save the second set.
To their great credit they found the resolve to do so.
However after building a seemingly impregnable 6-2 lead in the shootout the Brits lost four match points only to secure matters on a fifth and take the victory 8-6.
For her part Norton admitted it had been a squeak in the end but the bottom line is the job was done: “To be honest we were a bit ropey in the second set and that was for a couple of reasons and part of that was the Austrians’ confidence came up.
“Obviously we were 5-4 down and had to save a couple of set points but we turned it round and forced the tie-break and then the boot was on the other foot when they saved match points.
“I guess we liked to keep everyone on their toes but we got the job done and now we have a play-off semi-final to look forward to in the morning.”
Waiting for Team GB will be a Swedish side who were pre-tournaments favourites and boast the highly-ranked Carolina Navarro in their side after her defection through marriage to Scandinavian ranks.
With Norton and Ruddick securing victory at around 9.30 pm there is less than 12 hours to recover for what is a huge match for Alvaro Guerrero’s side.
Indeed with the GB head coach making a change at third couple to bring in Libby Fletcher and Catherine Rose they took to the court for the dead rubber just before 9.45 pm.
It will indeed be interesting to see if Alvaro once again shuffles his cards to try and do all he can to preserve freshness in his side.
But Norton was rightly in the mood to savour her success: “We knew that Austria would dig deep and they gave it everything but we stuck with it.
“We got the job done and that is what matters and now we face Sweden in the semi-final with a place in the World Championships at stake.
“Obviously they are very strong and we will have to be at our best but with a good home support behind us hopefully that can make all the difference because they were great tonight.
“One things is for sure and that is we will do all we can to get through.”
