Katie Boulter is continuing to enjoy the part of leading lady as she again gave Great Britain a winning start in their Fed Cup tie with Hungary.
The British number two, who also won the opening rubber in GB's previous two victorious ties this week, edged a tense encounter with Dalma Galfi 6-4 6-7 (5) 7-6 (1) to put GB 1-0 up in the best-of-three clash.
The 22-year-old has taken a shine to Fed Cup tennis and has a three from three record in singles matches – all of them this week.
What a warrior! Sum up that @KatieBoulter1 performance in 1⃣ word 🇬🇧🇬🇧 Watch the @FedCup live 👉 https://t.co/d73v4nVzBA and with @btsport pic.twitter.com/iMENosqLPt — British Tennis (@BritishTennis) February 8, 2019
This one was far from easy, though, against a player ranked 311 in the world and she had to dig deep in the third set to come out with the win.
She was a break down at 2-3 but after a period of reflection under her towel at the changeover, came out and battled back, eventually winning the deciding tiebreak in style.
"I think I was just trying to breathe," she said. "It was very difficult to keep my head straight and I just wanted to zone in again and put the towel on my head and focus on the floor a little bit and I thought I did well to bounce back from that.
"I am ready to get some rest! I sat here yesterday and said, 'I put everything into that' and I can tell you the same thing today.
"My whole heart I put on that line there and I did the absolute best I could and it was just about enough."
It looked like being a much more routine victory as Boulter roared into a 5-1 lead in the opening set, before Galfi made a fight of it.
The win puts Britain in control and if British number one Johanna Konta can beat Anna Bondar, ranked 224 in the world, then they will have booked their place in tomorrow's Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 play-off against Serbia.
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