France beat Belgium to win Davis Cup

LILLE: Lucas Pouille throttled Belgium’s Steve Darcis 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 in Sunday’s decisive ifth rubber to clinch a 10th Davis Cup title for France in front of a passionate Lille crowd.

Belgian ace David Goffin levelled the final at two points apiece after defeating Jo-wilfried Tsonga in straight sets in Sunday’s opening reverse singles, but Pouille powered France to a first victory since 2001.

Goffin, who outclassed Pouille in Friday’s opening rubber, saved a set point while serving at 5-6, as Tsonga was left to rue his inability to capitalise on any of six break points in a marathon first set.

World number seven Goffin, the runner-up to Grigor Dimitrov at the season-ending ATP Finals in London last weekend, snatched a 75-minute opening set with a blistering backhand return in the tie-break.

Tsonga, who brought France level in Friday’s second singles with a crushing win over Darcis, then surrendered his serve in the second set with a costly double fault as Goffin surged 4-2 ahead before seizing a two-set lead.

Goffin powered a double-break ahead in the third set as Tsonga’s resistance crumbled, and closed out the match with minimal fuss to set up a winner-takes-all clash between Pouille and Darcis.

Darcis, whose most famous win came when he knocked Rafael Nadal out in the first round of Wimbledon four years ago, has five deciding Davis Cup rubber victories in his career. He beat Australia’s Jordan Thompson in the fifth rubber in September’s semi-final in Brussels to send Belgium through to a second final in three years.

SABALENKA TRIUMPHS

Number one seed Aryna Sabalenka cruised to a straight-sets victory in the final of the $125,000 WTA Mumbai Open on Sunday.

The 19-year-old Belarusian brushed aside Dalila Jakupovic 6-2, 6-3 in India’s commercial capital to claim her first WTA singles title.

Sabalenka, ranked 96th in the world, took just over an hour to defeat the unseeded Slovenian, placed 252 in the rankings, on Mumbai’s hard court surface.