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Great Britain beat Portugal in Federation Cup opener

Britain's Johanna Konta celebrates beating Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in their women's singles third round match on day six of the Australian Open
Image: Johanna Konta won her singles match against Portugal

Johanna Konta and Heather Watson secured victory for Great Britain in their opening Fed Cup tie against Portugal in Estonia.

New captain Anne Keothavong leads the squad into the Europe/Africa Group One competition, where Britain will also face Turkey and Latvia in the round robin phase ahead of a potential play-off for a place in the World Group II.

Watson, the British No 2, breezed through Wednesday's opening rubber against Ines Murta, whose singles ranking is 546, to complete a 6-1 6-1 victory in under an hour.

As world No 10, Konta, who reached the Australian Open quarter-finals, is the highest ranked player in the zonal group.

The 25-year-old wasted little time in taking control of the second rubber against Michelle Larcher de Brito.

TALLINN, ESTONIA - FEBRUARY 06:  Anne Keothavong (C), captain of the Aegon Great Britain Fed Cup team and (L-R) Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Laura Robson
Image: GB's Fed Cup team (L-R): Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Anne Keothavong, Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae

The British No 1 claimed the opening set 6-2 against the world No 246 in just 30 minutes.

Larcher de Brito, though, held her own at the start of the second set and forced a couple of break chances.

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Konta, though, saved each time before then pushing through a break of her own to lead 4-3 and went on to close out a 6-2 6-4 victory on her first match point.

With Great Britain 2-0 ahead in the best-of-three tie, the doubles became a dead rubber, as Laura Robson teamed up with 25-year-old Jocelyn Rae against De Brito and Murta.

Robson and Rae completed Britain's dominance in the tie with a 6-2 6-3 win.

Watson, the world No 72, praised Keothavong's leadership as Britain look to return to the competition's top tier for the first time since 1993.

In an interview on the British Tennis Twitter account, Watson said: "It was great having Annie there. She was great and she'll continue to do a great job and so far I've really been enjoying on the trip with her as captain."

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