Great Britain were victorious in their first home Fed Cup tie since 1993 after Katie Boulter and Johanna Konta helped them see off Slovenia.
Britain are in Group 1 of the Europe/Africa Zone of the women’s team tournament and are hoping to get to the World Group II play-off in April if they come out on top of the round-robin event in Bath.
It has been 26 years since they played a tie in this country and they made the perfect start by getting the point on the board in their opening Group A match as Boulter and Konta put them 2-0 up in the best-of-three encounter against the Slovenians.
Boulter, playing her first Fed Cup singles match, beat Kaja Juvan 6-4 6-2 in the opening match and then British number one Konta saw off Dalila Jakupovic 7-6 (9/7) 6-2 to get the tie won.
Harriet Dart and Katie Swan were then able to enjoy the pressure-free doubles rubber, knowing the result did not matter, but they won 6-2 6-2 against Juvan and Jakupovic anyway.
Captain Anne Keothavong was delighted to get the job done easily ahead of what will be a gruelling few days.
“I didn’t really want to be sitting there in a deciding doubles on day one!” she said.
She saved three-set points to take it on a tie-break and then ran away with the match to win in straight sets.
Konta, playing her 20th Fed Cup tie, never panicked despite looking like losing that first set.
“What I try to do is draw from past experiences, it is not the first time I have been down in a tie-break or a set,” she said. “I just try to stick to that process and stay calm.
“I thought I was competing well and I was just trying to trust that more than anything.”
Britain are also in a group with Greece and Hungary, who won their opening-day encounter 2-1. Britain take on Greece on Thursday.
Croatia, Turkey, Serbia and Georgia are in the other pool. Croatia got their campaign off to a winning start with a 2-1 victory over Turkey, while Serbia beat Georgia by the same scoreline.
The winners of each group will play each other to determine who advances to the play-offs in April.
