They will have to "find the solutions to spoil the party" of the world number 1 Ashleigh Barty and its Australian partners ... This is the challenge that the Blue is tackling in the final of the Fed Cup 2019, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 November in Perth (Australia).
A French success, the third after 1997 and 2003, would come, in the first campaign of Julien Benneteau in the role of captain, complete the season reunion between Caroline Garcia and her teammates, after two years of quarrel.
Drawing ceremony with my girls 🥰🇨🇵👊🤩 @fioferro @ ppauline86 @KikiMladenovic @CaroGarcia
J - 1 #AllEnsemBlue pic.twitter.com/K82vMExMyI
This final on the west coast of Australia is in any case the last before the Fed Cup, like the Davis Cup since this year, duels home or away and three weekends of competition for focus around a final phase of a week, spring 2020 in Budapest, with twelve teams.
In the meantime, the number one obstacle that separates the Blues from the trophy is called "Ash" Barty. At 23, the Australian has exploded to the highest level in 2019 by offering her first Grand Slam crown at Roland Garros, then crowning her season with a triumph at the Masters, bringing together the eight best players of the year. less than a week ago, in Shenzhen (China). As a bonus, she became the first Australian to finish the world number one year.
Fed Cup lady
In the Fed Cup, his record would turn pale more than one: out of nineteen matches played since 2013, Barty won seventeen. Better still, she stayed on a winning streak of fourteen and brought three points (2 singles and 1 doubles) to her team in each of the first two rounds of the 2019 campaign, in the United States and against Belarus.
Since losing to Ukraine's Elina Svitolina in the first round of World Group II in the winter of 2017, neither she nor Australia has lost.
"When you play a Fed Cup final against the world number one team outside, you can not say you have an advantage," agrees Benneteau, far from being defeated.
Faced with the Australian Barty-dependence - mitigated however by the last minute eligibility of Ajla Tomljanovic, of Croatian origin but naturalized - the captain of the team of France underlines the fact that it has "a lot of options in single and double ".
"In the first two rounds [against Belgium and Romania, Ed], we have proved that we can win with different players in singles.It is an advantage.You never know what can happen on Saturday in the first two singles it can be very difficult physically, mentally And after, Sunday is a huge day, develops Benneteau.Have different options, it gives me the migraine in the week, but it is a privilege the weekend."
Nearly half a century of waiting for Australia
For the first two singles, the logic of the ranking was in any case respected by the staff, which will launch its number 1 and 2, Kristina Mladenovic (40th world), one of the eleven players to beat Barty in 2019 and recent winner of the Masters in doubles, and Caroline Garcia (45th). "Kiki" will open the ball against Tomljanovic, before "Caro" rubs against Barty.
But Sunday, if the Blue are still in the game, Benneteau will he risk to opt for Alizé Cornet, who is recovering from a tear psoas occurred a month ago? Or will he bet on the young Fiona Ferro or the experienced Pauline Parmentier?
"To us to find the solutions to spoil the party" Australian, launches the captain tricolor. The Bleues, they, are an asset of their experience in the final 2016. So under the leadership of Amelie Mauresmo, they had lost double decisive against the Czech Republic in Strasbourg.
"We know what a Fed Cup final is, not Australians, it's an important factor," says Garcia in an interview with the ITF. "It's a big advantage to know how things are going, the pressure there is," says Mladenovic.
And if the management of this pressure, at home, revealed the Achilles heel of the players of Alicia Molik? This is the first time in twenty-six years that Australia has invited itself to the Fed Cup final. And it's been almost half a century since she won it. The last time was in 1974, to say another time.
👀 The official draw for the 2019 #FedCupFinal
🇦🇺🆚🇫🇷 #FedCup #AUSFRA pic.twitter.com/aBXdOIgzNi
With AFP