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Christina McHale has hung on for a win over Samantha Stosur which puts the USA ahead 2-0 at the end of day one and mounts serious pressure on the Australians.
Samantha Stosur won the first set with a strong start but managed to hold on despite a shaky finish.
Her second set was extremely poor as she fell 1-6 to McHale who raced away to take the set after Stosur failed to put in a fight.
The third set was fought very closely with both McHale and Stosur producing some good play before McHale came away in the end managing to break serve and then serve for the match giving the USA a massive leg-up in their campaign to stay in the World Group for 2017.
There is now huge pressure on the Australians with Samantha Stosur taking on Madison Keys while Daria Gavrilova will meet with McHale before the doubles match.
Australia cannot afford to lose from here now with wins paramount tomorrow.
Final score:
Samantha Stosur 6 1 5
Christina McHale 3 6 7
Will Samantha Stosur be able to get Australia one step closer to a World Group berth in 2017 with a win over Christina McHale or will the American stop her in her tracks? Join The Roar for live scores from around 12:30pm (AEST).
After a five-week hiatus, Samantha Stosur has had some decent showings in recent weeks with the Australian looking to help her nation to a spot in the World Group in front of her home crowd at Brisbane.
Stosur had a good run at Charleston before being stopped during the third round by Sara Errani after wins over Aleksandra Krunic and Jana Cepelova.
Prior to that she went into the round of 16 at Indian Wells, her first appearance since Australia’s 3-2 loss to Slovakia in the Fed Cup five weeks earlier, but was defeated by Victoria Azarenka in three sets who went on to down world No.1 Serena Williams in straight sets during the final to take out the tournament.
The Australian has won six of her last ten matches and was Australia’s best player last time the nation played in the Fed Cup being the only squad member to win a rubber with two wins to her name over Jana Cepelova and Anna Schmiedlova.
Her opponent Christina McHale has caused some upsets in recent weeks defeating both Caroline Garcia and Garbine Muguruza at Indian Wells while sending world No.1 Serena Williams into three sets at Miami before eventually losing to her compatriot.
McHale faces a tough challenge with the American having never defeated Stosur in four meetings. One of those encounters came this year at Indian Wells with the Australian winning in three sets during the round of 32 at the masters tournament 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Prediction
Samantha Stosur will win the match and put Australia one step closer to qualifying for the Fed Cup World Group next year.
Stosur in three sets.
Join The Roar for live scores from around 12:30pm (AEST) following the completion of Daria Gavrilova and Madison Keys.
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