2019 Fed Cup Final - Australia vs France

With Ashleigh Barty more determined than ever to end Australia’s title drought in front of their home crowd, the Australian women’s Fed Cup team is the slight favourite to claim the trophy for the first time in 45 years.

Australia vs France

Australia and France are both aiming to end their Fed Cup title droughts as the Aussies have not won the tournament since 1974, while the French team last lifted the trophy in 2003.

Seven-time champions Australia powered into their first decider in 26 years after a thrilling 3-2 win over Belarus at Brisbane in April, while France earned their spot in the Fed Cup final with victory over Romania in Rouen.

Fed Cup Weekend Format

The 2019 Fed Cup final between Australia and France will be played on a hard court at RAC Arena in Perth over two days on the weekend of November 9 and November 10. Two singles matches will be played on Saturday, with the reverse singles and a doubles match on Sunday.

Fed Cup debutant Ajla Tomljanovic will play the opening singles match on Saturday against France's top player Kristina Mladenovic. The Australian has been selected ahead of Samantha Stosur to back up French Open champion Ashleigh Barty in the singles.

World No. 1 Ash Barty will face French No. 2 Caroline Garcia in the second singles rubber on Saturday. A potentially decisive doubles clash will see doubles specialist Samantha Stosur set to team up with Ashleigh Barty against Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic on Sunday.

The first nation to win three rubbers wins the tie and will be crowned Fed Cup champions.

Australia’s road to the final

Alicia Molik’s side reached the Fed Cup semi-finals by defeating USA 3-2 in the first round. Ashleigh Barty partnered Priscilla Hon who was making her first Fed Cup appearance, to win the decisive finals doubles rubber 6-4 7-5 against America’s Danielle Collins and Nicole Melichar.

The Aussies advanced to the final for the first time since 1993 thanks to French Open winner Ashleigh Barty who defeated two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka and current world No. 11 Aryna Sabalenka in singles before teaming up with veteran Samantha Stosur to triumph 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 over the same Belarusian duo and claim the decisive doubles rubber.

Australia is led into this weekend's tie by World No. 1 and newly crowned WTA Finals champion Ashleigh Barty. The 23-year-old has already committed to playing all three rubbers this weekend when she tries to break Australia’s near-half-century drought and lift their eighth Fed Cup crown.

Rolland Garros champion Ash Barty will lead an impressive squad featuring Australia’s second highest-ranked player, Ajla Tomljanovic, Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur, and teenage sensations Astra Sharma and Priscilla Hon.

Croatian-born Ajla Tomljanovic will make her debut for Australia after a successful year which has seen her spending most of 2019 inside the Top 50, after hitting a career-high ranking of No. 39 in April. Tomljanovic replaces the injured Daria Gavrilova.

Former US Open champion Samantha Stosur is Australia's most prolific singles winner in Fed Cup history, having accumulated 29 singles wins for her country since her debut in 2003. The 35-year-old is unbeaten in 8 Fed Cup doubles matches and is currently ranked world No.15 in doubles. The experienced Stosur won the Australian Open doubles title in January alongside China’s Zhang Shuai.

Perth-raised Astra Sharma is making her second appearance in Molik’s Fed Cup squad this year. The 24-year-old qualified for the Australian Open then advanced to the second round in singles before reaching the mixed doubles final with John-Patrick Smith. Sharma reached a career-high ranking of No. 85 in June.

Priscilla Hon has qualified for WTA events five times in 2019 and currently sits at a career-high world No.118.

France’s road to the final

France, competing under the guidance of former Davis Cup player Julien Benneteau, earned a 3-1 win over Belgium to play their fourth Fed Cup semi-final in five years. The French team won the Fed Cup title in 1997 and 2003.

Two-time champions France reached the Fed Cup final for the sixth time with the help of their super-duo Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia who partnered in the competition for the first time since their narrow defeat against the Czech Republic in the deciding doubles of the 2016 final.

The French team defeated Romania in the semi-finals as Mladenovic and Garcia won the doubles to seal a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Romanian outfit. The two 26-year-olds beat former world No. 1 Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu 5-7 6-3 6-4 to secure a victory in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in the Normandy city of Rouen.

Romania, who was aiming to reach their maiden final, advanced to the semi-finals after upsetting defending champions Czech Republic in the quarter-finals in Ostrava in February.

Three-time Grand Slam doubles champion Kristina Mladenovic will lead France in Perth this weekend. She is joined by world No. 45 Caroline Garcia, Alize Cornet, Fiona Ferro, and Pauline Parmentier.

French No.1 Kristina Mladenovic won the WTA Finals Shenzhen doubles title for the second year in a row alongside Hungary’s Timea Babos. The pair also lifted the French Open title in June as Mladenovic reached a career-high ranking of No. 1 in doubles. Kiki Mladenovic is currently ranked world No. 40 in singles and No.2 in doubles.

Recent Fed Cup Champions

• 2010 Italy 3–1 United States
  
• 2011 Czech Republic 3–2 Russia
  
• 2012 Czech Republic 3–1 Serbia
  
• 2013 Italy 4–0 Russia
  
• 2014 Czech Republic 3–1 Germany
  
• 2015 Czech Republic 3–2 Russia
  
• 2016 Czech Republic 3–2 France
  
• 2017 United States 3–2 Belarus
  
• 2018 Czech Republic 3–0 United States
  

Fed Cup final facts

• Perth has hosted four Fed Cup ties over the history of the tournament, in 1970, 1995, 1998 and 2009
  
• Australia and France have met six times in Fed Cup history
  
• Australia holds a 5-1 record over the French team in the competition