Having transformed her fortunes overnight in Australia’s Fed Cup final defeat to France, Ajla Tomljanovic believes she’s reached a turning point in her career.

Tomljanovic will never forget her first experience representing Australia after a weekend of drastic highs and lows in Perth.

The 26-year-old was overcome by nerves in a 6-1 6-1 loss to a rampant Kristina Mladenovic in the opening singles rubber.

But after being backed by team captain Alicia Molik to turn things around, Tomljanovic repaid the faith with an impressive 6-4 7-5 win over Pauline Parmentier in Sunday’s reverse singles to even the ledger at 2-2 in the best-of-five rubbers final.

Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur couldn’t get the job done in the deciding doubles rubber but Tomljanovic’s nerveless performance on Sunday was a shining light for Australia.

“Honestly, I have never felt so sick after a match like I did yesterday,” Tomljanovic said.

“It was such a different feeling compared to some other matches I’ve lost in my career.

“But there’s not a lot of time that you can dwell and this team is so unbelievable with the atmosphere and the energy … they’re so chilled but at the same time competitive, and that is maybe a bit like my personality.

“They really pulled me through after that loss.”

Tomljanovic said she had felt surprisingly calm on Sunday after some motivating words from her teammates.

Yet to win a WTA title, the world No.51 believes her Fed Cup turnaround can inspire her to greater things on the women’s tour.

“I really thought this week could be a turning point in my career, just to realise what I’m capable of in moments,” she said.

“This was a situation this week that I’ve never felt before – the pressure, how much I wanted it, which is weird because tennis is an individual sport.

“But I think this team has brought that to me, just how they’ve accepted me and treated me so I felt that love from them that I just wanted to give back.

“I really think I can use this to my advantage for my tennis.”