Rafter levels final after Escude stuns Hewitt

World number one Lleyton Hewitt suffered a shock five-set defeat by Nicolas Escude in the Davis Cup final on Friday before Pat Rafter played masterful grasscourt tennis to pull Australia back to 1-1 against France.

Rafter swept aside Sebastien Grosjean 6-3 7-6 7-5 on the specially-laid court at Melbourne Park to steady Australian nerves after Hewitt, the U.S. Open champion and the hottest player in men's tennis, went down 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Escude has now won all seven Davis Cup singles he has played. The Australians, 1-5 favourites to win their 28th title, were stunned by Hewitt's loss and grateful to finish the day all square.

"It's easy to get greedy," Australia's non-playing captain John Fitzgerald said.

"I thought we had a good chance to be two-nil up but at the end of the day we're reasonably happy." Australia were champions in 1999 and are in their third successive final.

French captain Guy Forget was upbeat. "At 1-1 we have a chance. If we had been 0-2 down it would have been very difficult, almost impossible, so we are happy."

The doubles is on Saturday with the reverse singles on Sunday.

Rafter, who has not played in a title-winning Australian team, produced a classic display of serve-and-volley tennis to dispose of Grosjean in two hours and level the tie after Hewitt's reluctance to approach the net had cost him dear.

HOTTEST PLAYER

Hewitt won more points than Escude in their 3-1/2 hour battle but failed to win the ones that mattered, converting just three of his 18 break points while the 25-year-old Frenchman took four of eight.

"The biggest key would have been to take my opportunities when they came," said Hewitt, at 20 the youngest world number one in modern tennis history.

"I had an awful lot, in just about every set, but I just couldn't take them."

Escude beat Hewitt in five sets at Wimbledon earlier this year but was given little hope of repeating that performance.

The Australian had lost just two matches in the past three months and was full of confidence going up against a player ranked 26 places below him.

"I used the same tactics today that I used at Wimbledon, to come to the net at every opportunity and put pressure on him," said Escude.

"I was very nervous at the beginning and I couldn't find my timing on serve but it got better as the match went on and that was the key."

CAPACITY CROWD

With a capacity 15,000 crowd behind him at Melbourne Park, everything looked to be going according to script for Hewitt when the Australian won the first set, winning 12 points in a row to break Escude's second service game and build a 3-1 lead.

But things turned sour in the second set as Escude, playing a more effective serve-and-volley game, found his rhythm on the temporary grass court and Hewitt's groundstrokes began to miss their target.

The Frenchman won the second set but Hewitt, who lost both his singles in the 1999 final victory over France, regained control by winning the third with a single break.

But Hewitt's determination to stick to the baseline began to work against him. Escude won the fourth set then broke Hewitt twice in the fifth to seal an unexpected win.

Rafter, probably playing the final season of his career at 28, showed no sign of the arm injury that had troubled him in the build-up to the final as he brushed aside Grosjean.

The twice Wimbledon finalist cleverly mixed up his game to outplay and bewilder Grosjean who, like Hewitt, is more comfortable playing from the baseline.

FEELS GOOD

Rafter took the opening set with a single break then recovered from a break down in the second to force a tiebreak. Grosjean held triple set point at 6-3 in the tiebreak but Rafter won the next five points in succession to pinch it.

The third set also looked to be heading towards a tiebreak when the first 11 games all went with serve before Rafter pounced to break Grosjean a third time and seal victory.

Rafter missed Australia's 1999 Davis Cup win over France because of injury, carried an injury into last year's loss to Spain and is desperate to finish his career with a Davis Cup win.

"It feels really good to contribute, to go out there one-nil down and give the team what it needed was really rewarding for me," Rafter said.