16 February 2018 | Tennis Queensland

Ash Barty delivered three resounding performances to seal Australia’s victory in last weekend’s Fed Cup tie against Ukraine.

A day after a three-set struggle against Lyudmyla Kichenok, Barty was far sharper in beating down Marta Kostyuk 6-2 6-3 in her second singles rubber in Canberra, giving Australia a 2-1 lead.

“It was a little bit cleaner today,” said Barty, who finished the match with 17 unforced errors compared with Kostyuk’s 33.

“It was nice to come out here – there’s nothing better than grasscourt tennis when the sun is shining and there’s not a cloud in the sky, so it’s beautiful conditions.

The Queenslander reached match point in the eighth game of the second set, but fired a forehand well long.

She settled in the next game, producing the goods at the net and benefitting from a rash of Kostyuk errors – including the Ukrainian’s eighth double fault – to seal victory.

“I think today I had to come out and use a little bit of experience. I’ve probably played more on grass courts and more in Fed Cup, so I had to try and use that as best as I could,” Barty said.

After Gavrilova lost her second singles match, it was left to Barty and veteran Casey Dellacqua to secure Australia’s win in the final doubles tie when the score was locked at 2-all.

Already established as a successful doubles combination, Dellacqua and Barty took care of Ukraine’s twin sisters Nadiia and Lyudmyla Kichenok to seal an emotional 6-3 6-4 victory in the fifth and final match-up.

Barty, involved in all three victorious rubbers for Australia, later said on social media that playing Fed Cup for Australia is the best time of the year.

The 3-2 tie victory means Australia moves into the World Group play-offs against the Netherlands later in April, putting them one win away from the Fed Cup’s top-eight World Group nations for the first time since 2015.