Last Updated: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:17
Great Britain's chances of promotion in the Fed Cup have been dashed after they were beaten 3-0 by Austria on Thursday.
The Brits went into the tie full of confidence after beating Bosnia 3-0 in their opening Group D tie in Portugal but were thrashed by a similar scoreline as the decision to play Anne Keothavong after six months out with a knee injury backfired.
The former British number one was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Patricia Mayr as she came back into the spotlight after missing half a year on the circuit following knee surgery in August 2009.
Current British number one Elena Baltacha then lost 6-3 6-3 to world number 50 Sybille Bammer in the second singles match, while Keothavong and Sarah Borwell lost in straight sets to Mayr and Yvonne Meusburger in the dead doubles rubber.
And British captain Nigel Sears admitted that the Keothavong gamble had not paid off.
"Naturally I'm disappointed but we were beaten by a better team on the day," he said. "It was a lot to ask from Annie.
"I took a risk putting her in after being out for a long time, but she had been playing so well in practice I thought it was worth the risk and I knew that to get through perhaps to the later stages of this group she would need to have some matches behind her.
"Unfortunately she couldn't come up with it today, although Mayr played very well. It was a risk I took that didn't come off.
Great Britain complete their campaign against Belarus on Friday and even victory, coupled with success for Bosnia over Austria, would probably see them lose out on a place in Saturday's play-off.