{"id":19473,"date":"2024-04-15T15:24:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=19473"},"modified":"2024-04-15T15:26:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:26:50","slug":"preston-books-australias-billie-jean-king-cup-finals-berth-at-brisbane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2024\/04\/15\/preston-books-australias-billie-jean-king-cup-finals-berth-at-brisbane","title":{"rendered":"Preston Books Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals Berth at Brisbane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teenage debutante Taylah Preston has secured Australia\u2019s return ticket to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, sweeping past Mexico\u2019s Marcela Zacarias 6-1 6-1 at Brisbane on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before more than 4000 fans at Pat Rafter Arena, the 18-year-old elevated the hosts to an unassailable 3-0 lead following Arina Rodionova\u2019s three-set victory over Giuliana Olmos and Daria Saville\u2019s dismissal of Zacarias on Friday.<\/p>\n

Saville and Ellen Perez completed a 4-0 result in a doubles dead rubber after a 6-3 6-1 victory over Fernanda Contreras and Maria Fernanda Navarro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying not to cry at the moment to be honest,\u201d an emotional Preston said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s a very amazing feeling. I\u2019m very grateful to Sam [Stosur] and the team for the opportunity to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very lucky we have a very good team and everyone\u2019s extremely supportive and made me feel very comfortable coming out to play today because I was a bit nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

> READ: Team Australia rallies behind injured Hunter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Less than three months ago, Preston made her Grand Slam debut at Melbourne Park where she faced the daunting task of former world No.3 Elina Svitolina first up.<\/p>\n

The West Australian admitted she felt greater pressure walking onto court on Saturday carrying the weight of her team and nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah even a little more nervous this morning,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m playing for something a lot bigger than myself, I\u2019m playing for my team, I\u2019m playing for my country\u2026 I don\u2019t want to let the team down, there was a lot of what-ifs going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the girls were super supportive. They were just [saying] you\u2019ll be fine, you deserve this. Yeah they were just really, really comforting so that was nice to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking on the court my stomach was doing weird things. I was super nervous walking out but after a couple of games I\u2019d loosened up a little bit and then just thought OK focus on the court, don\u2019t try to look around too much and see everyone in the stands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tried to focus on my own things and I guess it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team captain Stosur hailed her charges, having combined so effectively to finish unbeaten at Brisbane.<\/p>\n

It ensured Australia\u2019s return to the Finals fold, where the team last reached the decider in 2022, at Seville in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it was shared around a lot,\u201d Stosur. \u201cEveryone played their part and obviously super happy for Tay today making her debut and performing as well as she did\u2026 Obviously now we\u2019re in it to try and win it so as with every event that our players go to they think they\u2019ve got a good chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the doubles triumph coming in a dead rubber, Perez said there was a good chance she and Saville would reprise the partnership should both make the Olympic team in Paris later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, I\u00a0think we have a great dynamic, we get on really well and I don\u2019t actually know how it works for the ranking and what we need to combine\u2026 It is a shame to see someone like Storm Hunter go down but yeah I think we\u2019ll find a way to try and do well at the Olympics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

> READ: Saville, Rodionova lift Australia to 2-0 lead over Mexico<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The only Australian player of the tie to compete both days, Saville admitted it was always more nerve-racking playing at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the whole team did an unbelievable job and like Sam mentioned how emotional it was for us seeing Stormy get injured\u2026 Unfortunate things can happen any minute,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all wanted to make Stormy proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

With retired former world No.1 Ash Barty watching on, it did not take long for Preston\u2019s nerves in the day\u2019s first match.<\/p>\n

No sooner had she found her rhythm and opened up a 4-1 lead than her opponent required a medical timeout for a right lower leg injury.<\/p>\n

Preston knew to be wary of a wounded foe with little to lose, but she maintained a cool head and broke for a sixth time for victory after 66 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s not very fun when you have to play an opponent with an injury\u2026 I sort of thought focus on my side of the court as harsh as that may sound,\u201d Preston said. \u201cI hope that Marcela is okay and it\u2019s nothing too serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a major debut and national representative honours already ticked off in the first four months of 2024, the world No.136 was keeping expectations in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously as I start playing higher level tournaments and higher-ranked opponents everything\u2019s going to become a bit tougher, but I\u2019m ready to embrace those new challenges,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything at the moment is really new for me. It\u2019s all very, very cool and fun, so I\u2019m learning a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teenage debutante Taylah Preston has secured Australia\u2019s return ticket to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, sweeping past Mexico\u2019s Marcela Zacarias 6-1 6-1 at Brisbane on Saturday. Before more than 4000 fans at Pat Rafter Arena, the 18-year-old elevated the hosts to an unassailable 3-0 lead following Arina Rodionova\u2019s three-set victory over Giuliana Olmos and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6359,"featured_media":19474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}