For France, a Celebration for the Ages

The French won the Davis Cup for the first time in 59 years, then started behaving in their normal, demure fashion, one befitting citizens of the capital of culture.

They formed a Conga line.

That was shortly after Guy Forget threw his racket and hit Yannick Noah in the foot, which was shortly before Forget stripped down to his shorts and threw his clothes into the stands.

Forget rode atop Noah’s shoulders, followed by Noah being hoisted in the air, fists clenched, crying. There were enough tears to form a new tributary of the Rhone.

As the crowd sang the Marseilles, danced and applauded, all at the same time, Forget and Henri Leconte grabbed a French flag and circled the court several times.

“I don’t think the Americans realize how much the Davis Cup means to the French team and the public,” Forget said.

‘We have the World Cup soccer, the Tour de France and the Davis Cup,” he said. “In America, they have 10 different things more important than the Davis Cup.”

So Sunday was a day for celebrating at the bowl-like Palais des Sports, where French national pride spilled out from everywhere and Forget, France’s emotionally charged racket artist, clinched a 3-1 victory over the United States in the final of the yearlong international competition.

Forget, a spindly, balding, 26-year-old from Marseilles, defeated Pete Sampras, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, and branded the 20-year-old American as a two-time loser in his Davis Cup debut.

Sampras took it hard.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said. “I feel like I’ve let down my team. . . . So life goes on, really.”

The Davis Cup stops here, though. The United States failed in its defense of the Davis Cup title it won last year against Australia, 3-2, partly because Gorman failed in his gamble that Sampras could continue his hot streak of the fall.

“I told Pete not to be too hard on himself,” said Gorman, who then seemed to be a little hard on Sampras himself.

“When I look back at the selection process of selecting Pete, if we could have had 75% of how he had been playing, we would come through,” Gorman said.

If Sampras played to less than capacity, the same cannot be said of Forget, who matched Leconte’s knack of hitting pressure shots, which he exhibited in Friday night’s three-set victory over Sampras.

The margin of victory was actually slight--one service break in the first, third and fourth sets. On the other hand, Sampras clearly had his chances, but converted only one of 10 break-point opportunities.

In the first-set tiebreaker, Sampras held set point at 6-5, but Forget bombed an ace for 6-6, then closed it out when Sampras sent a return wide and knocked a forehand from the baseline into the net.

“I was a bit deflated,” Sampras said. “I think it would have set the tone for the rest of the match if maybe I could have squeezed it out. But it wasn’t meant to be.”

Sampras evened the match in the second set, but fell down a break in the third. Forget served for the set at 5-3, and immediately ran into trouble.

Sampras held three break points, but Forget saved them all, one with a daring second-serve ace down the middle that drew grudging admiration from Sampras.

“It was a very gutsy and very big point,” Sampras said. “If he had perhaps missed it, there could have been a huge momentum switch. I couldn’t believe he did it.”

What caused Forget to try such a risky shot?

“I decided I was going to risk everything there,” Forget said. “It turned around the set. Sometimes you have to take risks, and it works. I have to credit Yannick because he convinced me it was all right to take chances. We were a great team together.”

Thus rescued to deuce, Forget finished the set with consecutive aces--he finished with 17--and took an early lead in the fourth set with a service break.

With the crowd’s cheering stopping play after every point, Forget found himself serving for the match. He quickly dropped behind, 0-40, but maneuvered to deuce, then match point.

Sampras somehow chased down what looked like a certain winning volley deep in the corner and flicked it back to Forget, who was holding his racket awkwardly, preparing to toss it and begin the celebration.

Forget batted a clumsy forehand, but it was effective enough. With Sampras on his knees in one corner, the ball bounced toward the other.

This was the signal for the fun to begin. As Forget covered his face and wilted to the floor, Noah leaped over the net, picked him up and hugged him.

There was so much hugging, it looked like an encounter group.

“It’s a dream come true under your own eyes,” Noah said. “It’s very difficult for me to realize what’s happening.”

Leconte, who wept uncontrollably, stopped long enough to kiss the Davis Cup for the first time.

The last time a Frenchman held the Davis Cup high was in 1932, the year of the Four Musketeers--Rene Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon.

“Now, we’re part of history, too,” Leconte said.

Davis Cup Notes

Because the final was already decided, Andre Agassi’s singles match against Henri Leconte was called off. The final will go into the record books as a 3-1 French victory. . . . Captain Tom Gorman, who said the United States will be back in a final “real soon,” said Leconte was the top player in the final: “We weren’t expecting him to play so well. He was the man. He was great.” Coming off back surgery, Leconte beat Pete Sampras in straight sets Friday night and teamed with Guy Forget in doubles to beat Ken Flach and Robert Seguso in four sets Saturday.

Forget said captain Yannick Noah prepared the French team expertly. “He said there was no pressure,” Forget said. “We were playing a team better than we were. We had a great opportunity to play a final in our country. So we took it very seriously, unlike the Americans who perhaps thought they would win easily.”