Published on 12:00 AM, November 23, 2014

Federer felled

Federer felled

Swiss, French stay level

Honours were shared between France and Switzerland in the Davis Cup final in Lille on Friday on a day when Roger Federer suffered his worst ever defeat in the tournament.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion, playing in his first Davis Cup final at the age of 33, was clobbered 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 by flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils.
It was just the second time that Federer had lost a Davis Cup singles rubber in straight sets -- the other coming in his debut as an untested teenager in 1999 against Gianluca Pozzi of Italy.
The spotlight now will fall on who the two captains will choose to play in Saturday's doubles.
As it stands, the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet are scheduled to go up against Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer, with the reverse singles on Sunday.
But that could change with the in-form Wawrinka an option for Swiss coach Severin Luthi and his French counterpart Arnaud Clement mulling a Tsonga-Gasquet partnership.
On Friday, Stan Wawrinka had given the Swiss favourites a 1-0 lead by outplaying French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In both matches, the top ranking players lost to the number twos in straightforward fashion.
But if Wawrinka's demolition of Tsonga could hardly be classed as an upset, the Swiss being ranked fourth in the world to Tsonga's 12th, Federer's humiliation at the hands of Monfils was stunning.
Federer took an 8-2 winning head-to head record against Monfils into the rubber.
But his preparations for his first ever Davis Cup final took a hit last Saturday when he injured his back playing, ironically against Wawrinka, in the last four of the ATP World Tour finals in London.