France wins Fed Cup in nail-biter
12 November, 2019
Kristina Mladenovic inspired France to a drought-breaking Fed Cup triumph after a nail-biting 3-2 win in the final against Australia on Sunday.
Mladenovic combined with Caroline Garcia to beat Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-3 in the decisive doubles match at Perth Arena. She produced a herculean effort on the outdoor hard court after earlier Sunday upsetting the top-ranked Barty in a three-set thriller to move France into a 2-1 lead.
French Open winner Barty’s remarkable season ended in heartbreak just one week after her historic $4.42 million triumph at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen.
Former French Open doubles winners Mladenovic and Garcia broke three times to power France to their third Fed Cup title and first since 2003.
It was redemption for Mladenovic and Garcia who lost the decisive doubles match against the Czech Republic in the 2016 final.
“It’s a lot of emotion to share this with [Garcia] after we failed on the last step three years ago,” Mladenovic said. “We just wanted to take this little revenge for ourselves.”
Australia captain Alicia Molik hoped her team could rebound after losing their ninth straight decider stretching back to their last triumph in 1974.
“We will use this moment for fuel to drive us into the future,” she said.
Thiem gets better of Federer
LONDON (AP) — Dominic Thiem keeps getting the better of Roger Federer.
Thiem beat Federer 7-5, 7-5 Sunday in their opening match at the ATP Finals for his fifth win in seven meetings with the Swiss great — and third straight this year.
“To beat him, everything has to fit together. Today I think [that] was the case again,” Thiem said.
Thiem broke in the opening game of the match and again for a 6-5 lead in the first set after Federer had leveled at 2-2.
The second set went with serve until Thiem broke at love for another 6-5 lead. Federer, a record six-time champion at the ATP Finals, then missed two break points in the next game before netting a backhand return on Thiem’s second match point.
Thiem also beat Federer at the Madrid Masters and in the Indian Wells final this year, but lost to him in the group stage at last year’s ATP Finals.
For Federer, the loss means there’s no room for another slipup in his next two round-robin matches, against Novak Djokovic and Matteo Berrettini. He’ll probably have to win both in order to reach the semifinals.
“It’s a normal tournament from here on forward,” Federer said. “Not allowed to lose anymore for me. That’s how it is every week of the year for the last 20 years, so from that standpoint there is nothing new there.”Speech
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