23 October 2019 | Tennis West

Australian Fed Cup captain Alicia Molik has spent the week visiting six Perth primary schools as part of a Fed Cup Final Schools Fair.

Students presented Molik with good luck message boards featuring handwritten messages of support for the Australian Fed Cup team ahead of the BNP Paribas Fed Cup Final against France at RAC Arena from 9 to 10 November.

The message boards will be presented to the Australian team before the tie and placed on display inside their team locker room.

Molik spent time at the Riverton PS, Ardross PS, Phoenix PS, Rosalie PS, Sacred Heart PS and Wembley PS where more than 500 students were dressed in a sea of green and gold to welcome the Fed Cup Captain.

As part of the visits, schools were also been asked to nominate a name for the Australian Fed Cup Final tie mascot, which will be revealed throughout the week.

Molik says she’s looking forward to inspiring the next generation of up-and-coming tennis players when she visits each school.

“The Fed Cup Final is a momentous occasion for not only the players and team, but the wider tennis community and Australian sporting fans,” Alicia Molik said.

“Hosting a Fed Cup Final in your home city is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m really looking forward to visiting some of the schools around Perth and sharing the excitement and buzz around the Final with the local school kids.

“Women’s tennis and tennis across the board in Australia is in a really strong position at the moment, we have a world No.1 in Ash Barty, a former Grand Slam champion in Sam Stosur and some fantastic young ambassadors and rising stars in our ranks. It’s a great time to celebrate these players’ achievements and inspire the next generation.

“We want to ensure that people of all ages can feel a part of the Fed Cup Final, from our ANZ Tennis Hot Shots kids right through to our senior supporters,” Molik continued.

Watch the Schools Fair wrap up video, on our Facebook page here 

Additional information about the Fed Cup Final

• World No.1 Ash Barty will lead the team, as will the team’s most experienced and successful player Sam Stosur, who has played a standout 31 ties, and boasts an impressive 37-20 win-loss record.  The full team will be revealed by Molik in the coming weeks.
• Not since Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Dianne Balestrat (nee Fromholtz) and Janet Young defeated the United States 2-1 in the 1974 Fed Cup Final in Naples, has Australia been victorious in claiming the highly-coveted Fed Cup title.
• Some 45 years in the making, the team will play for the country’s eighth Fed Cup title whilst looking to reinstate Australia’s dominance of the 1960s and 70s which saw Australia win seven titles in just over 10 years.

Two-day ticket packages are on sale via Ticketek at www.ticketek.com.au/fedcup.

Fed Cup by BNP Paribas is the World Cup of Tennis. It is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport, with 108 nations entered in 2019. The competition was founded in 1963 and was originally known as the Federation Cup. The name was changed to Fed Cup in 1974.