Great Britain face a struggle to reach the Fed Cup Finals after going 2-0 down on the opening day of Fed Cup Qualifiers in Bratislava. After Anna Karolina Schmiedlova thoroughly outplayed Heather Watson 6-2, 6-3, Harriet Dart produced a desperate, courageous performance in her first live Fed Cup rubber, but she eventually lost 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Watson had arrived dreaming of a different opener. When Great Britain overcame Kazakhstan last year to reach the now defunct World Group II for the first time in 26 years, the team’s joy came at a delicate period for Watson. She was forced to watch from her bed at home, crippled by sickness. Despite her years of service, she would not have played even if she had been fit; she had fallen out of the top 100 with a six-match losing streak. It has taken courage for her to turn her form around since the end of 2019, rising back into the top 100 and arriving in Bratislava with the possibility of righting in the absence of Johanna Konta.

Her problem was the simple difference between a player who was born on the dirt and one still learning to play on the surface. From the first exchanges on the indoor clay of Slovakia’s National Tennis Center, Schmiedlova flew into her strokes with long, perfectly judged sliding as Watson’s excellent defence was slowed by the slippery clay. While Schmiedlova’s loopy top-spin strokes and wicked angles are built precisely to work her opponents to death on the slow clay, Watson’s strokes are flatter and her game is more linear, built on the hard courts of Guernsey. She felt that her only hope was to stand on the baseline and hit through the surface.

Watson battled well in the opening stages, feathering a series of delicate drop-shot winners and engaging in bruising rallies, but Schmiedlova’s counterpunching forced Watson out of her comfort zone and the Slovak eventually marched to victory with an accomplished performance.

Heather Watson lost 6-2, 6-3 to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for LTA

The pressure rested on Dart’s shoulders for the second rubber. She stood at the baseline without a single live Fed Cup rubber to her name, only 16 clay-court matches in her record and a highest ranking win of 64. Her stress was high and her odds even higher against No 65 Viktoria Kuzmova. Many better players would have crumbled, but Dart handled herself exceptionally, fighting hard to the death.

In her young career, Dart has shown that she can make up for her lack of weaponry and experience with fight. She arrived prepared to shoulder the pressure, opening the match serving incredibly well and controlling most of the rallies off the ground. Dart breezed through her opening service games and then saved three set points.

As Kuzmova eventually found her range on her powerful groundstrokes and rolled through seven consecutive games in the middle of the second set, it seemed the match would quickly fall her way as she moved to a 5-2 third-set lead. But Dart refused to buckle. She resolutely held serve and then disdainfully dismissed a match point on the Slovak’s serve with a searing backhand down the line.

On her own serve at 5-4, Dart saved four match points including one with an astonishing exhibition of defence and grit, retrieving two overheads and then forcing a Kuzmova error. As the Slovak gagged, spraying errors and looking helplessly to her team, Dart’s temperament was outstanding and her focus was relentless.

It took six match points and two hours 55 minutes for the Slovak No 1 to defeat her. Dart may not possess the biggest game and she currently does not have a coach or a permanent training base, but the 23-year-old has many years of battling ahead. No matter how the second day goes, the No 141 should leave Bratislava a little more hopeful about being among the likes of Kuzmova in the top 100 soon.