Ajla Tomljanovic will spearhead Australia’s Billie Jean King Cup campaign.Credit:Getty Images
Instead,Australia will be spearheaded next month by world No.47 Ajla Tomljanovic,as they hope to improve on their runners-up finish in 2019.
Twelve nations will contest the Billie Jean King Cup finals – played under a new format – from November 1. There was no Fed Cup competition last year due to the pandemic.
World No.1 Barty headed back to Australia in recent weeks. Her coach Craig Tyzzer said after the US Open,where the Queenslander lost in the third round,that she was fatigued. It’s unclear if Barty will again hit the road in 2021 and take her spot in the lucrative season-ending WTA Finals in Mexico,also in November.
Alongside Tomljanovic,who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in a career-best 2021 season,Astra Sharma and debutantes Ellen Perez and 19-year-old Olivia Gadecki will wear the green and gold.
It’s something of a changing of the guard for Australia – seven-time champions but without a title since 1974 – as they will also be without veteran Sam Stosur,the winner of most Fed Cup singles matches for Australia (29-17 record overall).
Australia went heartbreakingly close to breaking their title drought when they hosted France in the final two years ago,the last time the event was decided with that format.
Croatian-born Tomljanovic,who represented the nation for the first time,bounced back superbly after being crunched 6-1,6-1 by Kristina Mladenovic.