Federer seals Davis Cup for the Swiss

World number two wins the reverse singles against Richard Gasquet as Switzerland win even for the first time.

Federer had pulled out of the World Tour Finals' decider to get fit for the Davis Cup [Reuters]

Roger Federer produced a vintage performance to crush Richard Gasquet 6-4 6-2 6-2 and seal Switzerland’s maiden Davis Cup title with a 3-1 win over hosts France.

The 17-time grand slam champion shook off back problems during the weekend and recovered from Friday’s defeat by Gael Monfils to hand France a third defeat in their last three finals.

With Federer imperious on serve, there was a sense of inevitability in the air of the Pierre Mauroy stadium despite the support of a record 27,448 raucous crowd and Gasquet’s decent level of play.

He made more unforced errors than the gifted Frenchman — 24 to 21 — but hit an astonishing 62 winners, kneeling down before lying on his chest after wrapping up the match with a cunning drop shot.

“We fought hard for it. I’ve been playing this game for almost 15 years and clearly I had never come as close than this past weekend,” said world number two Federer, for whom the only major title missing from his collection is now an Olympic singles gold medal.

“I’m happy I stayed calm and played a good match when I had to. I’m really happy for all the guys in the team.”

Stan Wawrinka gave them the first point by beating Tsonga in the first singles rubber before Monfils levelled on Friday.

Switzerland were 2-1 up going into Sunday’s reverse singles after Wawrinka and Federer teamed up to beat Gasquet and Julien Benneteau in the doubles on Saturday.

Source: Reuters