CANBERRA — Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua put Australia into the Fed Cup World Group playoffs with victory in the deciding doubles rubber over Ukraine in Canberra Sunday.

Barty and Dellacqua eased past twin sisters Nadiia and Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-3, 6-4 after Nadiia had levelled the tie with a singles win over Daria Gavrilova.

Australia will now move into the World Group play-offs in April, putting it one win away from the Fed Cup’s top-eight nations for the first time since 2015, while Ukraine will face a World Group II play-off.

Barty was Australia’s leading light with her third victory of the weekend after beating both Lyudmyla Kichenok and Marta Kostyuk in her singles matches.

Australia’s No. 1 singles player Barty had defeated Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 to put her country on the cusp of qualification only for Gavrilova to lose the fourth singles rubber.

World No. 26 Gavrilova completed a dismal weekend when she went down for the second time despite winning the opening set against unranked Nadiia Kichenok 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

US goes 2 up

Venus Williams got the defending champion United States off to a winning start in their Fed Cup first-round tie against the Netherlands Saturday before CoCo Vandeweghe survived a scare to extend the lead to 2-0.

Cheered on by her younger sister Serena, who is poised to make her own comeback to the sport after a year away and the birth of her daughter, seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus made relatively light work of 124th-ranked Arantxa Rus, winning 6-1, 6-4.

The 37-year-old, who enjoyed a renaissance year in 2017 when she reached two Grand Slam finals, showed some signs of tiring towards the end of the second set even as her clear advantage in skill and raw power were on display.

It was her 1,000th career match and her 22nd singles appearance in a tournament she first played in 1999.

In the second singles, Vandeweghe rallied from a set down, winning the second in tense tie-breaker before finding her range against Richel Hogenkamp in a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory.

Wawrinka beaten

Three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, on his way back after undergoing knee surgery last year, was in upbeat mood despite losing in the Sofia Open semifinals Saturday.

The Swiss believes he needs more time to reach full fitness after going down 7-6(6), 6-4 to Bosnia’s Mirza Basic in his fifth competitive match in seven months.

Wawrinka was knocked out in the second round of the Australian Open last month, losing to unheralded American Tennys Sandgren in three sets.

Wawrinka will play next week in Rotterdam where he won his last indoor title in 2015.

All-French final

Richard Gasquet overcame a second-set meltdown to beat top-seeded David Goffin 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 and set up an all-French final against Lucas Pouille at the Open Sud de France Saturday.

Gasquet and Goffin dropped serve three times, but the fifth-seeded Gasquet had the edge by winning 79 percent of his first-serve points and hitting eight aces.

Second-seeded Pouille was trailing 6-1, 5-5 when No. 3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga suddenly retired, prompting a sympathetic hug from Pouille and some unfair boos from the crowd.

Tsonga fears he has a tear in his left hamstring.

Gasquet is aiming for the 15th ATP title of his career, while Pouille tries for his fifth. He leads Gasquet 3-1 in their career head-to-heads and has won the past three. — Agencies