Testud Overcomes Bagel For France’s 1st Fed Cup

Sandrine Testud weathered a 23-minute first set shutout and beat Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 Sunday in Den Bosch, Netherlands, clinching France’s first Fed Cup tennis title.

The 4-1 winning margin gave captain Yannick Noah the title in his first year as Fed Cup coach after guiding two French men’s teams to Davis Cup triumphs.

“This is a great moment,” Noah said. “It was difficult with such a fast court. I was a little scared.”

Testud was full of praise for Noah.

“He pushed me to give my best,” she said. “He always believed in me and that is what I needed.”

In Sunday’s first match, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy beat Mary Pierce, No. 8 in the world, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to keep the Netherlands alive.

Britain’s Greg Rusedski won the battle of big servers, defeating Mark Philippoussis of Australia 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3) in the final of the $975,000 Swiss Indoors in Basel. The slugfest between tennis’ two heaviest hitters ended with Rusedski serving 22 aces to the Australian’s nine.

Top-seeded Jim Courier won the China Open, beating No. 5 Magnus Gustaffson of Sweden 7-6 (12-10), 3-6, 6-3 in a 2-hour, 21-minute match in Beijing. Gustafsson rallied in the second set after squandering several chances in the first set tiebreaker. Courier, however, took the third set easily.