Final four

Grosjean leads French team for Davis Cup showdown

PARIS (AP) -- France's bid for a second straight Davis Cup title will rest on players whose collective success far outstrips their individual achievements.

Sebastien Grosjean, Arnaud Clement, Nicolas Escude and Fabrice Santoro were named Tuesday to face the Russian team led by Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the Nov. 29-Dec. 1 final.

Of the French players, only Clement has reached the final of a major -- the 2001 Australian Open -- while Safin and Kafelnikov have three Grand Slam titles between them.

But captain Guy Forget's team is undefeated in eight Davis Cup ties stretching back more than two years.

France caused a huge upset in last year's final by defeating the highly favored Australian team, led by world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, 3-2 in Melbourne.

The only difference between that French side and the team named to face Russia is the absence of Cedric Pioline, whose place goes to Clement.

Escude beat Hewitt in the first match of last year's final. He became a French national hero by clinching the title with a four-set victory over Wayne Arthurs in the fifth and final rubber.

The 26-year-old is 10-2 in Davis Cup ties. However, he usually prefers faster surfaces to the clay chosen for the final at Bercy's indoor stadium in Paris, and is likely to play only doubles against Russia.

Grosjean is France's top-ranked player at No. 16 in the ATP Champions Race. He was a semifinalist at the French Open -- the only major played on clay -- in 2001, and reached the quarters there this year. He is 10-6 in Davis Cup ties.

But France's secret weapon could be one of its most unassuming players.

The 29-year-old Santoro is ranked 35th in the world and has never made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam. Yet he is enormously successful against Safin, winning six of their seven matches.

He eliminated the Russian from the third round of last year's French Open, surviving a fourth-set shutout to take the fifth and final set 6-1.

Santoro, however, has lost all six of his matches against Kafelnikov and may be restricted to playing doubles, for which he is 7-4 in Davis Cup ties.

Clement, ranked 37th in the Champions Race after a disappointing season, is 6-5 in Davis Cup. He played a major role in France's semifinal defeat of the United States by winning the opening match against Andy Roddick in four sets.

Paul-Henri Mathieu, who won two straight singles titles last month, is the French team substitute. He has never played in the Davis Cup.

Forget has until one hour before the draw on Nov. 28 at 11:00 GMT to name the final team from his five chosen players.

France is seeking its 10th Davis Cup title. It hasn't won back-to-back titles since 1932 and has finished runner-up five times.

The United States holds the Davis Cup record with 31 titles.

Russia has never won the event but was runner-up in 1994 and 1995. Kafelnikov, a former French and Australian Open champion, played in both Davis Cup finals and has a 43-23 record in the event.

Safin, the world No. 3 and the 2000 U.S. Open champion, is only 9-10 in Davis Cup matches, although he has twice won the Paris Masters, which is played at Bercy on carpet.

Mikhail Youzhny and Andrei Stolyarov are the remaining Russian team members.

France has never played Russia, but it had a 2-1 record against the former Soviet Union. Their last tie took place in 1983 and ended with a 4-1 victory for France.

 

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