As the season winds down, Doubles Take looks at the action at the last few events on the WTA and ATP tours.

VIVA LA FRANCE

In the semifinals of this year’s edition of the Fed Cup, both France and Australia had to rely on the doubles outcome to advance against their respective opponents, Romania and Belarus, with both nations eking out three-set victories.

It only made sense then that the final of the international women’s team competition would go down to the wire, too.

On the first day of the competition, France’s Kristina Mladenovic routed Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 6-1, 6-1, to stake the visiting team to a 1-0 lead. World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty went two steps further by dominating Caroline Garcia 6-0, 6-0 to level the contest. The Aussie couldn’t maintain that momentum, though, as Mladenovic pulled off the upset and beat her in a third-set tiebreak, before Tomljanovic topped Parmentier in straight sets, leaving it all up to the doubles to decide the outcome.

Garcia and Mladenovic, the 2016 French Open winners, faced Barty and former doubles world No. 1 Samantha Stosur. All four players on the court had won majors in doubles, but in the end, the French team had perhaps more familiarity with each other, which propelled the duo to a 6-4, 6-3 win.

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The victory gave France its first Fed Cup title since 2003 and capped a dream two-week stretch for Mladenovic. It was only a few days prior that she defended her doubles title at the WTA Finals with Timea Babo before her Fed Cup heroics. She’s firmly entrenched in the top 10 in doubles: Perhaps a return to the upper echelon in singles is in store for 2020?

THIS WEEK

The men are contesting their last tour-level event of the season at the ATP Finals. Reserved for the top eight qualifying teams, the season-ending championships in London are well underway.

In case you missed it, check out the Doubles Take preview.

Follow Van on Twitter: @Van_Sias