Australia look set to finish the Hopman Cup for 2015 without a win after Casey Dellacqua lost in straight sets to British youngster Heather Watson at the Perth Arena on Friday night.
The 22-year-old world No.50 Watson beat Dellacqua 6-3 6-4 in 101 minutes to begin the tournament's last round-robin tie with Andy Murray to now hit the court to face Australia's Marinko Matosevic.
The final for Saturday is already set before the last tie with the USA team of Serena Williams and John Isner to play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska and Jerzy Janowicz.
Dellacqua, the world No.29, started her week with a 6-2 6-3 loss to Radwanska before then also losing to France's Alize Cornet 4-6 7-5 6-1 but she would have been hoping for a better showing against Watson.
Dellacqua could only convert two of 13 break points for the match while hitting 52 unforced errors and just 29 winners against an opponent who had her game under more control.
"At this point of the year it's not about the end result, it's about my performance based on tactically and a lot of different elements," Dellacqua said.
"Obviously it's always nice to win and you always want to get a win on the board, but unfortunately I have lost three matches this week and that's the nature of our sport. I just move on to the next week now and look to improve in Hobart."
The win was Watson's first at the Hopman Cup after losses to Cornet and Radwanska.
"I knew that Casey's the home girl here and there was a lot of support here, but I have to thank everyone for cheering for me too," Watson said.
"It was so much fun. Casey played an amazing match and especially at the end it was pretty exciting."
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