Australia have been ousted from the Billie Jean King Cup without even hitting a ball on Friday.
Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and world No.23 Yulia Putintseva led Kazakhstan to a crushing qualifying victory over Colombia in Brisbane to send Australia crashing out before the quarter-finals for the first time in almost a decade.
Rybakina put Valentina Mediorreal 6-0 6-1 in just 37 minutes before Putintseva saw off Yuliana Lizarazo 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour in the second singles rubber to give the Kazakhs an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three-match tie.
After losing 2-1 to Kazakhstan on Thursday, Australia needed the Colombians to cause a major boilover for the hosts to have any hopes of progressing out of the three-team Group D qualifying stages.
Alas, Sam Stosur's tournament hosts now face Colombia on Saturday in a dead tie at Pat Rafter Arena.
Runners-up in 2019 and 2022 and champions seven times but not since 1974, Australia haven't missed the eight-team finals of the so-called "World Cup of Women's Tennis" since 2018.
Seeded fourth this year, the Australians lost both singles matches on Thursday, with Kim Birrell going down 6-3 7-6 (7-4) in a tight battle with the 10th-ranked Rybakina and Cup debutant Maya Joint falling 6-2 6-1 to Putintseva.
A 6-3 6-4 win for Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez over Anna Danilina and Zhibek Kulambayeva in the doubles kept Australia's hopes of scraping into September's finals in China flickering.
But they were dashed in less than two hours on Friday.
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