ROGER FEDERER produced a vintage performance to crush Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and seal Switzerland’s maiden Davis Cup title with a 3-1 win over host France in Lille on Sunday.

    The world No. 2 shook off back problems during the weekend and recovered from Friday’s defeat by Gael Monfils to hand France a third loss in its last three finals.

    It was one of the greatest sporting triumphs for Switzerland and a huge personal milestone for Federer to go with his 17 Grand Slam titles, six Masters titles and Olympic doubles gold.

    It left him with just an Olympic singles gold to win in Rio in 2016 to become just the third man, after great rival Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi, to win all four Grand Slam titles, the Olympic title and the Davis Cup.

    With Federer imperious on serve, there was a sense of inevitability in the air of the Pierre Mauroy stadium despite the support of a record 27,448 raucous crowd and Gasquet’s decent level of play.

    He made more unforced errors than the gifted Frenchman — 24 to 21 — but hit an astonishing 62 winners, kneeling down before lying on his stomach after wrapping up the match with a cunning drop shot.

    Stan Wawrinka had given the Swiss the first point by beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first singles rubber before Monfils levelled Friday. The visitors were 2-1 up going into Sunday’s reverse singles after Wawrinka and Federer teamed up to beat Gasquet and Julien Benneteau in the doubles Saturday.(SD-Agencies)