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France and Russia tied at 1 in Cup

PARIS -- Yevgeny Kafelnikov hardly helped his plans to retire as a Davis Cup champion.

The Russian lost 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-0 to Sebastien Grosjean on Friday, allowing defending Davis Cup champ France to pull to 1-1 after the opening day.

Marat Safin won the opening match, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. The best-of-five final will be decided in Sunday's singles matches no matter who wins today's doubles between Kafelnikov-Safin and Nicolas Escude-Fabrice Santoro.

France is seeking back-to-back titles for the first time since 1932 and its 10th title overall. Russia has never won.

Kafelnikov said he will retire if Russia wins. The two-time Grand Slam champion had 41 unforced errors and 20 winners. Grosjean hit 42 winners and served 13 aces; his opponent had none.

Mathieu made his Cup debut against Safin, a U.S. Open champion and No. 3 in the world. Captain Guy Forget chose the 20-year-old over the experienced Arnaud Clement, who had wrist tendinitis the past six months.

Safin double-faulted on his first match point, drawing a frown from Boris Yeltsin, Russia's former president, and a look of relief from his neighbor, French President Jacques Chirac, who left after the first match.

Mathieu broke serve and won the next to trail 5-4, then moved ahead 30-15 in the final game when Safin hit a forehand long. The Russian won the next two and closed with his 19th ace.

"I'm happy that Marat won," Yeltsin said. "But the real struggle is still ahead of us."

Forget was considering replacing Mathieu with Santoro for Sunday's match against Kafelnikov.

Mathieu was the first to make his Cup debut in a final since Pete Sampras in 1991. Sampras lost to Henri Leconte, and France beat the United States 3-1. John McEnroe is the only player to make his singles debut in the final and win (4-1 U.S. win over Britain in 1978).

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