Queenslander Storm Sanders has managed to raise a rueful smile while being hammered by Switzerland's Jil Teichmann in the opening match of Australia's bid to reach the Billie Jean King Cup final in Prague.
Sanders, who's looked like the Aussies' secret weapon this week as they seek to win the world team championship of women's tennis, finally met her match in Friday's semi-final when being blown away 6-0 6-3 by her fellow southpaw Teichmann.
Her 63-minute loss put all the pressure on the Australians in the best-of-three-match tie with Ajla Tomljanovic having to beat the Swiss Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the other singles match to keep their hopes alive.
The Australians are seeking to reach back-to-back finals for the first time since 1975 in the tournament that was formerly known as the Fed Cup, with Russia waiting as opponents after they beat the United States 2-1 in the other last-four tie earlier on Friday.
But Sanders' dream week, after winning her two group stage matches, quickly entered nightmare territory when world No.39 Teichmann, who's ranked 92 places higher than the Rockhampton player, condemned her to a horror start at the O2 Arena.
The nervous-looking world No.131, coughing up errors while Teichmann was practically flawless across the other side of the net, was 'bagelled' 6-0 in just 18 minutes and managed to win only three points all set.
Things got worse at the start of the second set when, even though she started making a match of it, Sanders went 3-0 down and looked on the verge of tears.
When she finally got on the board by winning the 10th game, she was at least able to raise her arms on mock triumph and give a broad smile.
And the relief also prompted the new relaxed Sanders to display her fighting spirit to battle back to 3-3.
But even though she'd beaten a top-20 player in Elise Mertens during the Australians' group match win over Belgium, there was soon no chance of a repeat as Teichmann took advantage of her opponent's 20 unforced errors to draw first blood after just 63 minutes.
In the other tie, Liudmila Samsonova won her singles rubber before returning with Veronika Kudermetova in the deciding doubles to help Russia defeat the US - with American legend King, after whom the tournament is named, watching from the stands.
Samsonova and Kudermetova defeated the US pair of Shelby Rogers and CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3 6-3 in the decider before breaking into joyous celebrations on court with their teammates.
Danielle Collins had earlier levelled the tie for the US with a 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after Samsonova had given the Russians the lead with a 1-6 6-4 6-3 victory over Sloane Stephens.