Great Britain failed to reach the inaugural Fed Cup Finals by losing their qualifying tie to Slovakia.
Harriet Dart's 7-5 6-3 defeat by Anna Karolina Schmiedlova gave Slovakia an unassailable 3-1 lead in Bratislava.
Heather Watson had earlier kept Great Britain in the tie with a 6-0 7-5 win over Rebecca Sramkova.
Slovakia qualifies for April's 12-nation finals in Budapest, while GB will play a qualifying tie to get back to this same stage in next year's competition.
Britain was without world number 14 Johanna Konta, who opted to sit out the Fed Cup this year to protect her body, and Katie Boulter.
They returned to the World Group for the first time since 1996 by beating Kazakhstan in a play-off last April and were among eight seeded nations in the qualifiers.
Dart pays for missed chances
Dart had been beaten by Slovak number one Viktoria Kuzmova in a grueling three-setter on Friday but the 23-year-old Briton showed no sign of fatigue against Schmiedlova, pushing her hard in a tight first set.
But she sent a forehand long to hand Schmiedlova the first set before battling hard at the start of the second, where she carved out two break points on both of the Slovak's opening two service games.
But in the end, it was the failure to convert those chances - missing nine out of 10 break point chances in total - that cost Dart.
Schmiedlova, a former top-30 player who has slipped down the rankings to 199 through injury, showed her pedigree by saving three break points from 0-40 to hold for a 5-2 lead in the second set.
World number 141 Dart did force the Slovak to serve out the match, showing her fighting spirit by saving two match points with two scorching winners, but finally succumbed on the third match point when she sent a backhand long.
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