Ambitious Australia will play Slovakia in the Billie Jean King Cup quarter-finals after the Europeans upset the USA in a thriller in Malaga.
The ITF had billed the round-of-16 tie a "David versus Goliath battle" after Slovak Viktoria Hruncakova warned the US "we are a small country, but we have a big heart".
And so it proved as Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova hung on in the deciding doubles rubber to seal a 2-1 victory for Slovakia with a tense 6-3 3-6 10-8 win over Taylor Townsend and Ashlyn Krueger.
