France deny Barty a party by winning Fed Cup final
Ashleigh Barty was unable to cap her hugely successful season with a Fed Cup victory after France edged Australia 3-2 yesteday.
Barty, who ended the WTA Tour year as the world No 1, French Open champion and WTA Finals winner, partnered with Samantha Stosur in the doubles against Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia, with the French team claiming a 6-4, 6-3 win at Perth Arena.
It was France’s third title and first since they beat the United States 16 years ago, piling more misery on seven-time champions Australia who have now lost all nine of the last Fed Cup finals they have appeared in.
Mladenovic and Garcia, who won the 2016 French Open doubles title, bounced back from going an early break down in the first set to expose Stosur’s weaknesses, with the veteran out-of-sorts and making too many mistakes.
Barty, stunned by Mladenovic in a singles rubber earlier in the day, did her best to keep Australia in the hunt, but the French pair were clinical, racing to victory as their teammates went wild.
“I’m the proudest man on the planet right now, I’m so proud of my girls and my team. They deserve it because they fought for a long time for this title,” France captain Julien Benneteau said courtside.
The final marked the last Fed Cup played under the current format, with an overhaul next year seeing 12 nations compete in a six-day event in Budapest.
That will mean an end to home ties and the atmosphere they bring, with the 26,951 fans turning up over two days in Perth the second-highest Fed Cup attendance on record after Roland Garros (30,000) in 2005.
The doubles clash was set up by Ajla Tomljanovic hauling the home team back into the tie by beating France’s Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 7-5. She came on court after 40th-ranked Mladenovic upset Barty 2-6, 6-4, 7-6.
Croatian-born Tomljanovic, in her Fed Cup debut for Australia, had been thrashed 6-1, 6-1 by Mladenovic in the opening singles rubber on Saturday. But captain Alica Molik kept faith with her and she bounced back to beat Parmentier 6-4, 7-5. “Really glad I got a second chance today and got the win and kept us in,” Tomljanovic said.