Kristina Mladenovic had a rather interesting weekend in Perth. The world no.40 was engaged in the Fed Cup final against Team Australian that had the luxury of having the world no.1 Ashleigh Barty in its team.
Even if Team France was the underdog, they managed to rely on Kiki that was absolutely great. Both teams were locked on a 1-all scoreline after Mladenovic demolished Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1 6-1 and Barty annihilated Caroline Garcia 6-0 6-0. In the reverse singles, Mladenovic produced the upset of the weekend after beating Ashleigh 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(1). However, Ajla defeated 6-4 7-5 Pauline Parmentier. Everything had to be decided at the doubles that Mladenovic and Garcia won over Barty and Sam Stosur 6-4 6-3.
Everything ended with a heartwarming hug between Mladenovic and Garcia soon after winning the decisive match. Kiki and Cartoline used to be great friends, but something got broken. Therefore it was great to see them in great terms again.
Kristina Mladenovic’s ranking and performance in 2019
Ranked no.40, Mladenovic played her last match on the regular tour the 19th
of October when she was overcome by Belinda Bencic 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal in Moscow.Kristina Mladenovic’s best performance of the current season was getting to the semi-finals in Moscow and Zhengzhou.
Ashleigh Barty’s ranking and performance in 2019
Currently the world no.1, Ashleigh played her last match on the 3rd of November when she beat Elina Svitolina 6-4 6-3 in the final in Shenzhen to win her 7th career title.
This year the Australian has a 52-12 win-loss record. The Australian clinched 4 titles in 2019 in Miami, at the French Open, in Birmingham and in Shenzhen. Ashleigh was the finalist in Sydney and in Beijing.
Kristina Mladenovic and Ashleigh Barty played each other 3 times on the regular tour. The head to head is 2-1 for Mladenovic.
The last time that they played, Kristina Mladenovic won 6-2 6-3 in the 3rd round in Rome on the 16th May 2019.