Australia‘s Fed Cup title drought continues as France prevailed in the doubles decider to claim a 3-2 victory. Australians were hoping to win their first Fed Cup final in 45 years, empowered by Ashleigh Barty, officially the best player this season, but they ended up with tears in their eyes during the trophy ceremony in Perth.
The teams finished Day 1 with the 1-1 scoreline, as favorites Kristina Mladenovic of France and Ashleigh Barty of Australia earned confident victories. Day 2 opened with Mladenovic’s upset of top-ranked Barty, while Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic brushed off her yesterday’s disastrous score to beat Pauline Parmentier 6-4 7-5 and leave the tie to be decided in the doubles rubber.
Fresh off her Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen doubles title defense, Kristina Mladenovic partnered with Caroline Garcia and they eased past Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 to seal a victory for France.
Australia captain Alicia Molik commented:
Credit to France – gee whiz Kiki Mladevonic showed her true colours today, because I think she carried all the French team on her shoulders. She took it out of our hands I felt.
This was definitely Mladenovic’s weekend, who won all her three matches in the 2019 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final.
This was the last time the Fed Cup was played under the current format, as next year in April 12 nations will compete in a six-day event in Budapest, Hungary.
Kiki Mladenovic can use this to possibly launch a great year in 2020! She no longer has Sascha Bajin as a coach, so I wonder who will step in?
Jim, I have no news about her new coach. We’ll see in the coming weeks.