By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic have combined to play all 10 of France's Fed Cup matches this season.
Photo credit: Fed Cup Facebook
Creating happy home endings is not a new experience for Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.
Teaming together for the first time in a tournament on home soil, the French pair lit up Paris winning the Roland Garros doubles title in June.
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Next weekend, Garcia and Mladenovic will join forces again aiming to lead France to its first Fed Cup championship since 2003.
The International Tennis Federation announced the final rosters for next weekend's Fed Cup final.
The women who share the world No. 2 doubles ranking, 46th-ranked Alize Cornet and world No. 73 Pauline Parmentier form the French squad that will host two-time defending champion Czech Republic in the Fed Cup final. The final will be staged on an indoor hard court at the Rhenus Sport arena in Strasbourg, November 12-13th.
France faces a formidable challenge in the Czech Republic, which is bidding for its 10th Fed Cup championship, including its fifth in the last six years.
A trio of Top 21-ranked players—two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova, world No. 21 Barbora Strycova—and veteran doubles specialist Lucie Hradecka were named to the Czech squad by captain Petr Pala.
Pliskova and Hradecka defeated Hall of Famer Martina Hingis and Viktorija Golubic, 6-2, 6-2, to seal the Czech Republic's 3-2 semifinal victory over host Switzerland last April.
"They are two-time defending champions," Garcia told Fed Cup.com. "Pliskova is Top 10, Kvitova is almost Top 10 and won already two Grand Slams, they have Strycova, obviously, and there are so many others that can play in this team. It will be really hard for us, but I think we can do it this weekend."
The two nations have split six prior meetings; the Czech Republic beat France, 3-1, in the 2015 semifinals.
Les Bleus is Les Deux this season.
The 23-year-old Garcia and Mladenovic have combined to play all 10 matches for captain Amelie Mauresmo's team this season.
Garcia posted two singles victories and partnered Mladenovic in a winning doubles match leading France to a 4-1 win over Italy in its February. The pair rallied from a set down to defeat Kiki Bertens and Richel Hogenkamp, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, clinching France's 3-2 semifinal conquest of The Netherlands and sending Les Bleus into its first Fed Cup final since 2005 when Mauresmo, the nation's all-time Fed Cup singles leader, was still a player.
The sixth-ranked Pliskova has split two career meetings with Garcia with both of those matches going the three-set distance. World No. 13 Kvitova has beaten Garcia in two of their three meetings, including a 6-4, 6-4 sweep on the Ostrava hard court in their 2015 Fed Cup clash.
Kvitova is 3-1 lifetime against Mladenovic, including a straight-sets sweep in Ostrava last year. Mladenovic and Pliskova split their two singles meetings.
Both expected French starters got a glimpse of Pliskova's powerful serve when they defeated the WTA ace leader and partner Julia Goerges, 6-4, 6-2, in an opening-round doubles win at the WTA Finals in Singapore last week.
The French pair are hoping to make doubles decisive next weekend. Mladenovic boasts a 9-0 record in Fed Cup doubles matches, while Garcia is undefeated in five Fed Cup doubles appearances. The pair were moved to tears after winning the doubles point to send France into the final. Now, they take aim at the Cup.
"There was a lot of pressure, expectation, and we are kind of, we are not scared," Mladenovic said of her winning Roland Garros partnership with Garcia. "We like the challenge. We want to be great. We want to be champions.
"If you want to be great, you have to challenge all this, you know, the big crowd, the big moments, pressure on the court or outside media as part of the job."