Fed Cup victory for France - Garcia and Mladenovic get 3: 2!
Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic have won the decisive doubles in Australia. They beat Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur 6: 4 and 6: 3 to win the Fed Cup for France.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 10, 2019, 01:37 pm
Although Barty and Stosur got off to a better start and took the lead 2-0, Mladenovic was in a buzz while Stosur showed nerves.
Five games in a row made the two French women from the 4: 4 in the first round, also Garcia now showed her whole class. She suffered a 0: 6, 0: 6 swat in the singles match against Ashleigh Barty on Saturday and was replaced by Pauline Parmentier for the second singles on Sunday. The French defeated on Sunday but Ajla Tomljanovic , who got the 2-2 equalizer. Previously, Kiki Mladenovic had led Barty to lead France.
In the second round of the crucial doubles, Barty and Stosur had another chance to reach the top in a 2-4 win, but at the break, Stosur was not determined enough on the net, Garcia and Mladenovic finally made the deciding 5-2. Two match points at serve Stosur fought off the Australians, a 15:30 survived Mladenovic at own serve finally to victory.
After the match ball Mladenovic fell happily on the floor of the arena in Perth, the rest of the team followed quickly.
Former best friends Garcia and Mladenovic win
"It was a crazy weekend for all," Garcia said in an on-court interview. "It's a lot of emotions to share that with Caro," said Mladenovic, who also pointed to the bitter 2016 final, when France lost to the Czech Republic in the final.
Two years ago, the successful doubles team Garcia and Mladenovic had not been able to talk well after an unhappy separation .
France thus won the first Fed Cup victory since 2003 when they won in Russia. For team boss Julien Benneteau it was right in the first year in office victory, "he is a pretty happy guy," said Mladenovic.
For the Australians, the disappointment was great. They had to continue their great triumph - most recently the Aussies had won in 1974. Nice to se: the team spirit in the Australian team: Also Daria Gavrilova , who is currently pausing from tennis, was there and cheered on her compatriots; Australia's legends Darren Cahill and Rennae Stubbs showed full engagement via Twitter, but in vain at the end.