{"id":16969,"date":"2017-04-24T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T00:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=16969"},"modified":"2017-04-24T10:45:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T00:45:47","slug":"australia-thumps-serbia-4-0-in-fed-cup-whitewash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2017\/04\/24\/australia-thumps-serbia-4-0-in-fed-cup-whitewash","title":{"rendered":"Australia thumps Serbia 4-0 in Fed Cup whitewash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia has put in a dominant display to claim victory in their Fed Cup<\/a> tie over Serbia in Zrenjanin.<\/p>\n

The visitors jumped out of the blocks early claiming both singles rubbers before Daria Gavrilova<\/a> sealed the tie. The supreme doubles combination of Ash Barty<\/a> and Casey Dellacqua<\/a> inflicted more pain on Serbia with a straight sets win, which saw Australia claim a 4-0 whitewash.<\/p>\n

Gavrilova was the star of the tie with victory in both her singles matches. She came into the clash with Serbia without having won a Fed Cup match in her previous two ties.<\/p>\n

Australian Fed Cup captain, Alicia Molik<\/a> was thrilled with the Victorian\u2019s efforts as she put in a scintillating performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA really pleasing display today she was pretty commanding, very aggressive and I think she will set herself up nicely now for the European season,\u201d Molik told 1116SEN\u2019s, The First Serve<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually \u2018Dasha\u2019s\u2019 first win in Fed Cup competition \u2026 the monkey is well and truly off her back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molik, a decorated Fed Cup player herself, was quick to shower praise on squad debutant, Destanee Aiava<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The young Victorian, who captivated the nation in January by becoming the first player born in this century to participate in the main draw of a Grand Slam, didn\u2019t take to the court but is integral to the captain\u2019s long-term planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestanee\u2019s a big part of our future, she\u2019s a really exciting prospect,\u201d Molik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly from my perspective I\u2019ve been so impressed with Destanee this week. She reminds me so much of the time of Serena (Williams). The way she moves and her physicality on court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our future in women\u2019s tennis in Australia is very bright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiava was joined in Serbia by \u2018orange girl\u2019 and fellow Victorian Jaimee Fourlis<\/a>. The pair clearly enjoyed their time supporting their teammates but it was the attitude in and around the group that has Molik excited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s healthy to have a number of them coming through cause that\u2019s what really ultimately I think drives each other and helps the level rise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re there to drive their rise as quick as possible and I think once they have a sense of belonging, once they get that confidence that they\u2019re not too far away that\u2019s when we see the biggest improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the International Tennis Federation (ITF) signs off on expanding the World Group to 16 nations then Australia\u2019s win over Serbia should secure their place in the top tier for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia has put in a dominant display to claim victory in their Fed Cup tie over Serbia in Zrenjanin. The visitors jumped out of the blocks early claiming both singles rubbers before Daria Gavrilova sealed the tie. The supreme doubles combination of Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua inflicted more pain on Serbia with a straight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6038,"featured_media":16970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}