France beats Belgium for 10th Davis Cup title
France won its 10th Davis Cup title as Lucas Pouille thrashed Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 to give his country a 3-2 victory in the final against Belgium in Lille on Sunday.
Pouille was never threatened in the decisive rubber after David Goffin had given Belgium both its points with impressive displays in the singles, the Guardian reported.
France, however, had more strength in depth, winning a singles match through Jo-wilfried Tsonga on Friday and Richard Gasquet and Pierre-hugues Herbert coming away with victory in Saturday’s doubles match.
It is France’s first title since the Europeans beat Australia away in 2001 before three defeats in the final in 2002, 2010 and 2014.
Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman to win a Grand Slam title, celebrated his third title as captain after leading France to victory in 1991 and 1996.
“It was a victory we had been dreaming of,” said Noah.
“It’s a united group. It was a tough weekend against a good Belgian team. Lucas played a fantastic final match.”
Goffin had given the visitors a 1-0 lead by beating Pouille in the opening singles match before Tsonga levelled the scores by defeating Darcis on Friday, both matches decided in straight sets.
France took the lead thanks to the pairing of Gasquet and Herbert, who beat Ruben Bemelmans and Joris De Loore in four sets having never previously played together.
Goffin was again a notch above the rest on Sunday, levelling for 2-2 against Tsonga with a 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2 win as the world No. 7 sent the tie into a decider.
The final match was anti-climactic as Pouille raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set against Darcis, who never seemed to stand a chance on the indoor hard court.
The world No. 18, who was born 75km from the stadium in Lille, held serve to take the first set and never looked back, claiming 12 games in a row and closing it out on the first match point when a sorry Darcis sent a shot long.
“There’s nothing more beautiful than winning as a team in front of my friends and family. Now we’re going to celebrate and enjoy it,” said Pouille.