By Marc McGowan
Australia will have to settle for ending only one near-half-century title drought this year.
Ash Barty ended a 44-year wait for the host nation in claiming the Australian Open women’s championship in January, but 48 years have passed since Australia held aloft the renamed Billie Jean King Cup.
That drought will extend for at least one more year after talent-laden Switzerland denied Alicia Molik’s band of battlers a fairytale triumph in Monday’s (AEDT) final in Glasgow.
Storm Sanders celebrates winning a point.Credit:Getty
The Swiss crew clinched victory thanks to Jil Teichmann and Belinda Bencic’s contrasting singles victories over a brave Storm Sanders and Ajla Tomljanovic, respectively.
“We gave it everything, but it’s a real credit to the Swiss team. I know they got to the final last year and they’ve gone one [better] this time,” Molik said.
“They’ve just shown why they’re world champions – I mean, pretty amazing tennis to finish it off by Belinda, it was just flawless.
“We want to get back to another final. We’ve had two in four years and I think you have to keep chipping away – you can’t be despondent.
“Every year our level grows and every year we’ve played great tennis in this format … but we’ll learn from this and return next year and be even hungrier, there’s no doubt about that.”
The battlers tag for Australia is not disparaging but rather a badge of honour for a squad that, on paper at least, faced an uphill climb to even make it out of group play.
Barty is almost eight months into retirement, while the resurgent Daria Saville – one of only two Australians inside the top 100 – is home in Melbourne nursing an ACL injury.
That left in-form Tomljanovic to spearhead a team including so-called doubles specialists Sanders and Ellen Perez, a 38-year-old Sam Stosur who no longer plays singles, plus up-and-comer Priscilla Hon.
But Molik bullishly declared a week ago that they had “big ambitions” and branded her five-woman team “fighters” who aimed to emulate Australia’s 1974 champions, who were led by Evonne Goolagong.
Molik’s faith emboldened Sanders more than anyone.
Trusted as the No.2 singles player behind Tomljanovic despite being ranked a lowly No.237 – 80-plus spots lower than Hon – Sanders became Australia’s unlikely but undoubted hero.
The 28-year-old West Australian, a top-10 doubles star, upended higher-ranked foes Viktoria Kuzmova, Alison Van Uytvanck and Heather Watson on the way to the final without dropping a set.
And all while backing up in doubles each time, including being the best player on court as Australia outlasted Great Britain in a match tiebreaker in the deciding doubles in the semi-finals.
Sanders was gallant in defeat this time, pushing 35th-ranked Teichmann to the brink in a bruising, emotion-charged three-set encounter that lasted two hours and 19 minutes.
Down a set and a break twice before taking a medical timeout for what looked a sore Achilles, Sanders wrested back control from the baseline then repeatedly finished points with her superior net skills.
Her aggressive shot-making helped her snatch the second set, deservedly, to force a decider, but Teichmann’s bathroom break coincided with a change in momentum.
The Swiss star jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the final set, only for fellow left-hander Sanders to scrap her way level again through four games.
But after staving off another break point, Sanders dumped a straightforward overhead into the net to blow an opportunity to edge 3-2 ahead.
That miss went on to haunt her as Teichmann instead broke again and eventually posted a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 triumph that climaxed with the exhausted pair embracing at the net.
“It was quite emotionally draining and physically draining, too,” Sanders said.
“It was a really tough match. Jil’s a really good player; she’s a lefty and really tricky.
“The first set didn’t really go my way – I was battling a few things – but I was really proud of the way I came back in the second and just fought really hard.
“Then in the third set, there were quite a few games that could have gone either way – some deuce-ad games – and I got broken at two-all.
“But I literally left everything out there. I don’t have much energy left right now and [have] pretty much nothing more to give, so I’m proud that I left it all on the court.”
Tomljanovic, a Wimbledon and US Open quarter-finalist this year, had to beat Bencic in the No.1 singles to keep Australia’s hopes alive but played catch up after dropping serve in the third game.
In a rematch from last year’s Billie Jean King Cup semi-finals, the Olympic gold medallist Bencic broke Tomljanovic’s serve six times in a 6-2, 6-1 demolition in 76 minutes.
