Federer vs. Monfils in 2014 Davis Cup
France's Gael Monfils (R) speaks with Switzerland's Roger Federer after he defeated him during their Davis Cup final singles tennis match at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve d'Ascq, near Lille, November 21, 2014. Reuters

So much for Roger Federer wanting to win the first Davis Cup title for Switzerland for the first time in the country’s history as the Swiss Maestro was manhandled by Frenchman Gael Monfils early Saturday morning (Australia time) at the Monfils, who was just had 2 wins in 10 matches in previous encounters with the world no. 2, won in easy straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

The huge upset by Monfils levelled the best-of-five series at 1-1 after Stan Wawrinka defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a hard-fought four-set match, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 earlier on Friday.

Just last week at the 2014 ATP World Tour Finals, Federer quit against Novak Djokovic in the championship round because of back problems and it appears that the former world number one still has lingering issues in France. Monfils will take the victory however and his aggressiveness

Julien Benneateau pairs up with Richard Gasquet on Saturday night as France looks to grab the commanding 2-to-1 advantage in the series and are set to face Swiss doubles specialists Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer. However, Team Switzerland might put in Wawrinka (world no. 4) and Federer in lieu of the Swiss doubles pair especially as Federer announced that his back problems did not flare up in the match against Monfils.

“I'll definitely make myself available if I feel that I can play proper tennis,” Federer stated via the tournament’s official website. “I started to feel better as the match went on. That's very encouraging, I must say. I would think that I'm going to get better as the weekend goes on. I hope I’ll be fine tonight and tomorrow morning to give maximum possibilities for Severin and back up Stan and the rest of the team.”

Watch one of Monfils’ hot shots in the win versus the mighty Federer:

(YouTube/OfficialDavisCup)

Monfils considered the win as one of the biggest in his tennis career especially as it happened against one of the tennis' greatest players.

“Then, I think I like that atmosphere, the big court. The crowd was very good. They helped me a lot, gave me a lot of energy. At the end [it] helped me a lot because I went for my shots, which made me serve big [and hit] big forehands,“ Monfils stated also via the Davis Cup website.

After the crucial doubles match-up on Saturday, Federer returns to court in the reverse singles against Tsonga while Wawrinka faces Federer-killer Monfils on Sunday.

RELATED STORIES