The Fed Cup
Australia last won the Fed Cup, previously known as the Federation Cup, in Italy in 1974. The inaugural event in 1963 was held in London, with Australia’s Margaret Court and Lesley Bowrey earning a place in the first ever final against the USA’s Darlene Hard and Billie Jean King. The USA claimed the inaugural trophy, before Australia won its first title in 1964. Australia has a rich Fed Cup history; it is the third most successful Fed Cup team of all time with seven titles, behind the USA (18) and Czech Republic (11). Some of Australia’s most prominent female athletes in Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Margaret Court, Samantha Stosur, Alicia Molik and Ashleigh Barty have represented Australia in Fed Cup. Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 108 nations entered in 2019. Australia last won a Fed Cup title in 1974, 45 years ago.
1963 - 1973
After losing the competition’s inaugural final to the United States in 1963, Australia went on to win six Fed Cup titles in the next 10 years, making it the most prolific nation in that period. Those six victories came in 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1973, made possible by the stellar play of many of Aussie female stars including Margaret (Smith) Court, Lesley (Turner) Bowrey, Kerry (Melville) Reid, Judy (Tegart) Dalton, Karen Krantzcke, Evonne (Goolagong) Cawley, Lesley Hunt, Patricia Coleman and Janet Young.
1974
Facing perennial rivals the United States on clay in Naples, Italy in May 1974, Evonne Goolagong got Australia off to the perfect start in the final with a 6-1 7-5 triumph over Julie Heldman. American Jeanne Evert levelled the tie with a 2-6 7-5 6-4 win over Australia’s Dianne Fromholtz. With the doubles match acting as the third and decisive rubber, Goolagong teamed with Janet Young and overcame the US duo of Heldman and Sharon Walsh 7-5 8-6. The victory was Australia’s seventh Fed Cup title, the most of any nation until the United States levelled that mark in 1978 – at Australia’s expense.
1978
Australia last hosted a Fed Cup final in 1978, when the 32-nation World Group competition was staged from 27 November to December 3 on Kooyong’s grass courts in Melbourne. Australia was missing Evonne Goolagong due to a foot injury; the team was instead anchored by Kerry Reid and Wendy Turnbull and overseen by Neale Fraser. The hosts beat Belgium, Japan, Netherlands and USSR to arrive in the final, where a star-studded American team – featuring Billie-Jean King, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin and coached by Rosie Casals – awaited. Reid got the Aussies off to the perfect start with a straight sets win over Austin; “for a girl not yet 16, it must have been frightening to play before such a partisan crowd,” wrote Eloise Moss of Austin for Australian Tennis Magazine. Evert levelled the tie for the visitors with a 3-6 6-1 6-1 win over Turnbull. King shone in the decisive doubles rubber. “Chris and Tracy got me drunk and convinced me I had to go to Australia,” revealed the 35-year-old King, who put off knee surgery to contest that year’s Fed Cup. She and Evert combined to beat Reid and Turnbull 4-6 6-1 6-4 to earn the Americans a seventh Fed Cup trophy – equalling Australia’s competition-best tally. “The final doubles must rate among the best women’s doubles matches of all time,” wrote Eva de Jong-Duldig for Australian Tennis Magazine. “Kerry and Wendy played scintillating tennis, but were not destined to win.”
1984
Australia advanced to an incredible 16th Fed Cup final on clay in Sao Paulo, Brazil, defeating Argentina, Belgium, Germany and the United States along the way. The team featured Anne Minter, Elizabeth Minter, Elizabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull; Anne Minter was the team’s star thanks to a flawless 7-0 record, dropping just one set in five singles wins and winning two doubles rubbers. Despite Minter putting the Aussies ahead 1-0 in the final against Czechoslovakia with victory over Helena Sukova, Hana Mandlikova responded with a 6-1 6-0 triumph over Smylie. She and Sukova then combined in the doubles rubber to beat Smylie and Turnbull 6-2 6-2, handing Czechoslovakia a 2-1 victory – and the 1984 Fed Cup title.
1993
The setting was the clay courts of Frankfurt, Germany. The competition was the 32-nation, knockout-format World Group. Australia faced defending champions Germany first up. And the Aussies won. Nicole Provis stunned Steffi Graf in three sets for the biggest win over her career – handing the world No.1 her first Fed Cup loss in 18 rubbers – before Elizabeth Smylie and Rennae Stubbs combined to beat Huber and Barbara Rittner in the decisive doubles rubber. “I knew I had a big job to do to keep Australia in the match and I never let off the pressure,” said Provis, after Smylie lost the first singles rubber to Huber. “I’m very proud of the way I played.” The Aussies would go on to beat Denmark, Finland and Argentina to progress to its first Fed Cup final since 1984. There, Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez proved too strong. “We backed up from Germany brilliantly, we suffered no letdown and marched onto the final where, sadly, we were outplayed,” said Australian captain Wendy Turnbull. “We can’t be too disappointed after what we have achieved here.”
1999
Since 1995, Australia had competed in World Group II. And after losing their WGII quarterfinal against Austria despite winning the first two singles rubbers, it appeared the green-and-gold would stay at that tier for another year. Yet in the subsequent play-off competition in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Australia went undefeated against Argentina, Chinese Taipei, Romania and the hosts to qualify for the revamped 13-nation World Group in 2000. Nicole Pratt went 3-0 in singles rubbers – and 4-0 overall – to spearhead a team also featuring Jelena Dokic, Alicia Molik and Catherine Barclay. “Nicole is quickly becoming a Fed Cup powerhouse,” commented Lesley Bowrey, Australia’s captain at the time. “She’s very consistent and she’s always in there fighting very hard.”
2010
Prior to 2010, Australia had spent four of the previous five years toiling in the Asia/Oceania zone division. But the team gathered momentum in 2009, winning all five of its ties to progress to World Group II. After beating Spain 3-2 in its first-round tie in Adelaide in February 2010, the Aussie team – comprising Sam Stosur, Alicia Molik, Anastasia Rodionova and Rennae Stubbs – travelled to Ukraine for its World Group Play-off tie, and won 5-0. Stosur was especially dominant, with two straight-sets singles wins helping catapult the green-and-gold back into the elite eight-nation World Group for 2011. “The girls in Australia have worked very hard and it has been a long road to get back into the top eight,” said Australian Fed Cup captain David Taylor. “I think they are really looking forward to the challenge. It’s a really exciting time for Australian women’s tennis.” The Australian Fed Cup team has never again been relegated to the zonal tier of the competition.
2014
Australia enjoyed a memorable year in the World Group, playing two home ties and advancing to the World Group semifinals – its best Fed Cup performance since 1993. The team that year, captained by Alicia Molik, was headlined by Sam Stosur, Casey Dellacqua and a teenaged Ash Barty, who a year earlier had won her first live singles rubber against Switzerland to help Australia retain its place in the World Group. After trouncing Russia 4-0 in Hobart in February, Australia hosted Germany in Brisbane in the semifinals. The visitors, led by No.1 player Angelique Kerber, took an unassailable 3-0 lead when Kerber beat Stosur 4-6 6-0 6-4 in the first of the reverse singles rubbers. "I don't know if I can fight any harder than I did in that match," Stosur said. “I had chances today to win it but that's what it comes down to playing a top player. It's not a lost opportunity, the only opportunity lost was not making the final and that was always going to be tough."
2019
A pulsating semifinal in Brisbane saw Australia host Belarus in front of a record crowd for a Fed Cup tie played on Australian soil. Alicia Molik’s squad of Ash Barty, Sam Stosur, Daria Gavrilova and Priscilla Hon faced a strong Belarusian team featuring former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka and current top-10 star Aryna Sabalenka. After leading from the front in Australia’s first-round defeat of the United States earlier in 2019, Barty was again the star, beating both Azarenka and Sabalenka in singles – Stosur lost to both – before combining with Stosur in the live doubles rubber to score an electrifying three-set triumph. “To be able to share this with the girls sitting here now it’s unreal, and the way that ‘Mol’ has been able to create this team atmosphere and environment and this real want and desire to play for Australia again, it’s been unbelievable, it really has,” said Barty, now a sparkling 6-0 in Fed Cup play in 2019, and 17-2 overall. “It’s been a two or three year process to get to this point, we’ve taken our opportunities here and we’ve worked as a team. It’s a want for all Australian players to show that we’re a powerhouse nation.’’ The 3-2 victory over the Belarusians was Australia’s fifth straight victory in a Fed Cup tie, sending the team into its first Fed Cup final since 1993. That final will be staged in Perth in November, giving the hosts a shot at their first Fed Cup trophy in 45 years.
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