Cedric Pioline beat teenager Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (8/6), 7-5 in a three hour 40 minute thriller in Nice last night to lift hosts France into a 1-1 tie with Australia after the first day of the Davis Cup final.

Pioline, playing his 27th Cup singles match, called on his years of experience to inflict a first-ever Cup defeat on 18-year-old rookie Hewitt, who had won all four of his previous singles matches in the team competition.

The 30-year-old's win left the last final of the millennium evenly balanced after Mark Philippoussis, who was so nervous before the match that he was unable to eat, earlier bludgeoned his way to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Sebastien Grosjean to give Australia a 1-0 lead.