Austria took full advantage of home support and overcast weather conditions to upset the higher ranked team from the Slovak Republic, champions of 2002, 3-2 in their Fed Cup first round World Group tie in St Poelten.

Led by the redoubtable Barbara Schett, the Austrians established an unassailable 3-0 lead when the 27-year-old from Innsbruck beat Martina Sucha – a ‘fresh’ replacement for Ludmila Cervanova - 75 16 61 in the first of the reverse singles on day two.

The victory, which ended with the Austrian players receiving a shower of champagne in true Formula 1 style, had spectators enthralled for two hours and 14 minutes and followed the previous day’s heroics of her teammate, local girl Barbara Schwartz.

Then she had turned the tables on Cervanova to give Austrian hopes of overall victory by establishing a valuable 2-0 overnight lead, Schett having opened the first day’s play by recovering strongly to score a 46 61 64 triumph over Janette Husarova.

Schwartz’s 36 76(1) 62 victory proved a major blow to the visitors who saw a winning 5-2 lead in the second set evaporate away disastrously. The Slovak Republic now go into the lottery of the Play-Offs which could see the champions of two years ago sliding into the second division of the Fed Cup. The draw in early May won’t come soon enough for their followers!

Meanwhile Austria is assured a place in next year’s Fed Cup World Group I, one of the rewards of this dramatic victory over the country placed second on the ITF’s Fed Cup Nations Ranking.

But Alfred Tesar’s team of Schett, Schwartz, Patricia Wartusch and Sybille Bammer will have to reproduce another fighting performance when they face the might of the USA in the quarterfinals. Again, they will have home advantage when they meet in July.

“We beat them two years ago and it will be great to play them in Austria,” said a proud Schett, who wasn’t on that winning team which went on to reach the semifinals in 2002, after her marathon encounter with Sucha.

“Fed Cup means a lot to me and I am proud to lead the team,” she added confirming that the team spirit was second to none as she looked ahead to a possible meeting with the Williams sisters. “I’ve beaten Venus once,” she said, “but not Serena, though as the hard court season will be starting then, I’m not sure they will come here to play on clay!”

That confrontation is a mouth-watering prospect for Austrian tennis fans, whomever Zina Garrison, the American team captain, selects.

Schwartz, who was on that successful Austrian team of 2002, is another player who is proud to be representing her country by playing Fed Cup. “It is a great honour,” she said before going on court to partner Wartusch in the final ‘dead’ doubles against Husarova and Cervanova following Husarova’s 63 62 defeat of Bammer in the fourth singles to provide Slovakia with their first point of the weekend, thereby preventing the visitors from suffering a humiliating whitewash. They also collected the final point, 63 36 64 to make the final score a more respectable 2-3 loss!