Fed Cup: Barty wins twice, Australia beats Netherlands 3-1
WOLLONGONG, Australia (AP) Ashleigh Barty and Daria Gavrilova won singles matches Sunday to help give Australia a 4-1 victory over the Netherlands and a spot in the 2019 Fed Cup World Group.
Barty won her second singles match of the tie, beating Lesley Kerkhove 6-4, 6-2 in the first reverse singles on an indoor hard court at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre.
Gavrilova beat Quirine Lemoine in Sunday's second singles 6-3, 6-2. Lemoine double-faulted twice in the seventh game of the second set to hand Gavrilova a 5-2 lead, and the Australian clinched the tie in the next game.
The Russian-born Gavrilova draped herself in an Australian flag and completed a lap of honor around the court after clinching the victory.
''I was super nervous,'' she said. ''Just playing for your country is so much harder than just playing any other tournament.''
In the later meaningless doubles match, Gavrilova and Aiava Destanee, making her Fed Cup debut, beat the Dutch pair of Kerkhove and Demi Schuurs 6-3, 6-2.
On Saturday, Barty had a 6-0, 6-2 win over Lemoine after Kerkhove upset Samantha Stosur 7-5, 7-6 (1), leaving it level at 1-1 after the first day.
Gavrilova lost both her singles matches against Ukraine in February when Ukraine won 3-2 in Canberra, so Stosur got the start on Saturday.
With former French Open semifinalist Kiki Bertens among the Netherlands' top four players who decided not to play in Australia, Dutch captain Paul Haarhuis arrived in Wollongong without anyone ranked inside the top 200.
