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Mladenovic and Barty dominate as France and Australia kick off Fed Cup final tied at 1-1

France’s No.1 Kristina Mladenovic and world No.1 Ashleigh Barty of Australia made short work of their opponents on the opening day of the 2019 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final, so the teams move into the three decisive Sunday matches tied at 1-1 in Perth.

Fresh off defending her Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen doubles title with Timea Babos, Mladenovic lost just two games against good friend Ajla Tomljanovic, who was making her Fed Cup debut as an Australian representative. The Croatian-born Tomljanovic held serve for the first time in the fifth game of the second set, as Mladenovic raced to a 6-1 6-1 victory in 72 minutes to put France up 1-0.