France clinch 10th Davis Cup title, beat Belgium 3-2 in final

Lucas Pouille was the hero as he dominated Steve Darcis to help France clinch a first Davis Cup title since 2001 after being taken the distance by Belgium. France won Saturday's doubles to sit on the brink of victory in Lille, but David Goffin beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to take the contest to a decisive fifth rubber. Victory means France move level with Great Britain to third in the all-time list of winners with 10 titles, while Belgium - who lost to the British in the final two years ago - are still awaiting a maiden triumph. “We would have been more applauded if we had lost,” he said. Yannick Noah had taken charge in 2015, a year after Les Bleus were defeated in the final by Switzerland, their third consecutive defeat at that stage after losses in 2002 and 2010. The idea was that one of the nation's favourite sportsmen might recreate the feelgood factor of when he had previously led the team to victory in 1991 and 1996. When you don't win for 16 years, everybody is getting used to losing. That losing culture, it was destroying me,” Noah said in a long monologue at the post-match news conference (Video credit: Canal+/SNTV).