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| December 2, 2001 | Sunday | Ramazan 16, 1422 |
France on verge of lifting Davis Cup
MELBOURNE, Dec 1: France were on the verge of winning the Davis Cup after clinching Saturday’s pivotal doubles match when a risky gamble by the Australians backfired.
Cedric Pioline and Fabrice Santoro upset the Australian dream team of Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter 2-6 6-3 7-6 6-1 to take a 2-1 lead into Sunday’s concluding reverse singles.
The Australians made a last-minute decision to replace their their original doubles combination of Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs after Friday’s singles were split 1-1, only to see the move blow up in their faces.
“There is a fine line between genius and idiot, isn’t there?,” Australia’s non-playing captain John Fitzgerald said.
“It was a tough decision but it was one that was six of one and half-a-dozen of the other, a line ball call.”
The result left France in the driving seat to secure their ninth Davis Cup title unless Hewitt and Rafter can somehow find the energy to win the two remaining matches of the final.
“We came here with nothing to lose but the guys are starting to believe they can win now,” French captain Guy Forget said.
“The hardest part is still to come...but we believe we can do it.”
Rafter and Hewitt were both showing signs of tiredness by the end of Saturday’s match but insisted they would be fine on Sunday.
“It was their day and that’s fine. We’ll just get ready for tomorrow,” Rafter said.
The outcome of the doubles rubber has long been crucial in Davis Cup finals with the winner going on to win the title in each of the last 23 years.
Australia’s decision to replace Woodbridge and Arthurs caught everyone by surprise, not least because Rafter and Hewitt had not even practised together for the match while the original pairing had been training every day for the past month.
Woodbridge is also one of the most accomplished doubles players in history with 70 career titles, including 12 grand slams, while Arthurs has proved himself to be a reliable player, teaming up with Woodbridge to secure a crucial win over Sweden in this year’s semifinals.
France had drawn first blood in Friday’s opening singles when Nicolas Escude came from behind to beat Hewitt in five sets but Australia drew level when Rafter defeated Sebastien Grosjean in straight sets.
Australia’s late decision to switch their doubles pairing had looked to be working well when they broke Pioline’s serve twice to take the opening set in 34 minutes.
But the French quickly found their rhythm on Melbourne Park’s temporary grass court as the Australians’ game started to unravel.
Rafter and U.S. Open champion Hewitt had played doubles together only once before in Davis Cup while the French have been regular partners.
With Santoro calling the shots, France squared the match when they broke Rafter’s serve to win the second set in 29 minutes.
The Australians looked to be back in control in the third set but they failed to convert two set points on Pioline’s serve in the 10th game then blew a 5-4 lead in the tiebreak to give the French the lead.
“I think the tiebreaker was the key. If we had lost that we would have been 2-1 down,” Forget said.
Sensing victory, the French completely overran the Australians in the fourth set as the frustrations turned to errors and the visitors wrapped up a famous victory in two hours 47 minutes.
Despite having the weight of history on his side, Forget said his team were still the underdogs heading into the final day with Grosjean to face world number one Hewitt and Escude to tackle Wimbledon finalist Rafter.
Saturday’s results
France led Australia 2-1 after winning doubles match (Australian names first):
Saturday’s doubles: Lleyton Hewitt/Patrick Rafter lost to Cedric Pioline/Fabrice Santoro 6-2 3-6 6-7 (5-7) 1-6.—Reuters
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