Great Britain's hopes of reaching the World Group of the Fed Cup were dealt a blow with defeat by Turkey.

Britain need to finish top of their group in this week's Europe/Africa Zone Group I tournament in Budapest and win a play-off on Saturday to make it through to April's World Group II play-offs.

Judy Murray's team made the perfect start with a 3-0 victory over Liechtenstein in their opening match on Wednesday but were upset 2-1 by Turkey 24 hours later.

Both Jo Konta and Heather Watson were ranked significantly higher than their opponents in the singles but neither could post a win. Konta lost 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) to teenager Ipek Soylu and British number one Watson was unable to save the day as she slipped to a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 defeat by Cagla Buyukakcay.

Buyukakcay had served notice of her threat on Wednesday by beating Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, the highest-ranked player in the group, and she proved just the stronger in a tight contest.

Doubles pair Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith ensured Britain did not end the day empty-handed by beating Basak Eraydin and Pemra Ozgen 6-2, 6-1 in the doubles, and it could prove to be a very valuable point.

Britain can still top the group but they must beat Ukraine, the toughest of their opponents on paper, in their final round-robin match on Friday.

James Ward came up just short against Andreas Seppi in the second round of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors.

The British No.2 battled from a break down in the second set to level the match but was unable to complete the comeback as 41st-ranked Seppi, who upset Roger Federer at the Australian Open, triumphed 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3.

It was nevertheless another encouraging display from Ward, who is ranked 109th and looking to break into the world's top 100 for the first time.