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By Henry Brown
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, April 11 - Nicolas Escude
sealed a 3-2 victory for France in their Davis Cup quarter-final
against Switzerland after defeating Michel Kratochvil 7-6 6-4
7-6 on Sunday.
France, who were beaten by Switzerland at the quarter-final
stage last year, will travel to Spain for the semi-finals in
September.
World number one Roger Federer had overcome Arnaud Clement
earlier on Sunday to send the tie into a deciding fifth rubber.
Kratochvil was brought in as a late replacement for Ivo
Heuberger, who lost heavily to Clement on the opening day, but
the world number 197 could not match Escude in front of a noisy
partisan home crowd.
Escude broke Kratochvil in the fifth game of the first set
as the home player made a nervous start. However, the Swiss
broke back in the eighth game and the set headed into a
tiebreak.
Escude recovered to win the tiebreak 7-3 with Kratochvil
wilting under the pressure.
Back by a vocal French contingent, Escude took the second
set by breaking Kratochvil in the 10th game.
The final set went with serve until Kratochvil was broken in
the eighth game but Escude broke back immediately.
Kratochvil gained three set points at 6-3 in the tiebreak
before losing five successive points to hand the match to
Escude.
Earlier, world number one Federer, the Wimbledon and
Australian Open champion, kept Switzerland in the tie with a
dominant victory over Clement.
WONDERFUL SUPPORTERS
"I am so happy to have won for the wonderful supporters,"
said Federer.
"It means a great deal for me to play for Switzerland in the
Davis Cup and to win my game is also very special. It was an
important win to keep Switzerland in the match and I was pleased
with how I played.
"I hoped to win quickly after playing in the first two days
-- five sets would have been too much."
Clement was broken in his first two service games of the
match as Federer took control, his power from the baseline
equalled by the accuracy of his serving.
The second set went with serve until a series of pin-point
returns helped Federer break Clement to love in the 11th game,
before he served out the set 7-5.
The vociferous travelling fans attempted to rally Clement
but Federer broke again for the fourth time in the rubber in the
first game of the third set.
Federer produced some of the finest tennis of the game to
hold off Clement's attempts to break back and served out the set
6-4 for victory.
Clement said: "It went so quickly. Federer is just too
strong in every area. I knew it would be a difficult match but
Roger was very good. Exceptional."