Fed Cup Final - Day 1 match 1

Here at last the final - and first up on Perth’s RAC Arena Ajla Tomljanovic from Australia against France’s Kristina Mladenovic.

The pair had met twice, but that was back in 2014, so counted for nothing.

Mladenovic won the toss and elected to receive serve.

The roof was shut due to excessive heat.

Two errors and a double fault didn’t help the Aussie, but she saved two break points with grim defence.

The French forehand ultimately proved too much and a third break point was converted when Tomljanovic found the net.

An ace and three winners from Mladenovic made it a 2-0 start.

Effective serving and more meaningful ground strokes still couldn’t allow Tomljanovic to convert a game point - instead the French #1 drilled a forehand winner to break again for 3-0.

A double fault brought Mladenovic to deuce and she was forced there a second time. The retrieval skills of the Australian continued to frustrate Mladenovic until a break arrived, putting Tomljanovic on the scoreboard.

By the way the roof was open part way.

Mladenovic broke for the third time, and consolidated, sealing a 5-1 lead with a backhand pass.

Winners aplenty from the French racquet, and two set points came in a rush. Just one required as Mladenovic landed a shot right on the baseline and Tomljanovic was all at sea.

6-1 France 

Set two began the way set one ended with Mladenovic holding easily and Tomljanovic dropping serve to love.

Staying back in the court was causing all sorts of trouble for the Australian and she refused to change tactics.

Mladenovic appeared to be coasting to victory at 3-0.

After some careless Mladenovic errors, Tomljanovic at 40-15 looked to hold serve for the first time, but after the longest game of the match she again failed to trouble the scorers.

Her doubles expertise to the fore, Kristina Mladenovic pushed and pulled Tomljanovic around the court until she finally put winners away and moved within a game of French jubilation.

Ajla Tomljanovic did hold serve which required Kiki Mladenovic to serve out the match, which she summarily did on the first match point provided.

6-1 6-1

Now the pressure on Ash Barty to square the ledger for Day One