French duo Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau beat Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez in four sets to give France a first Davis Cup triumph against Spain since 1923.

“They played better than us in the doubles. It was a high level game and we have nothing to feel guilty about,” Spain captain Albert Costa told reporters.

“It’s a very distressing day. Our players have won the Davis Cup twice and they can be proud of what they did. This time we lost because we came across a better team.”

France will play the winners of the quarterfinal in Moscow between Russia and Argentina which will be decided on Sunday after Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos and Eduardo Schwank won Saturday’s doubles to give the south Americans a 2-1 lead.

Serbia lead Croatia 2-1 while Chile were battling to stay in the competition after conceding both Friday’s singles to an injury-hit Czech Republic in Coquimbo.

After Gael Monfils and Michael Llodra had given France a flying start on Friday with singles wins over David Ferrer and Verdasco respectively, Spain were left with a daunting task in Clermont-Ferrand, attempting to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the Davis Cup for the first time.

Backed by an enthusiastic crowd, Llodra and Benneteau outclassed their opponents for two sets before the Spanish launched a belated fightback.

Verdasco and Lopez saved a match point before extending the match to a fourth set but eventually went down 6-1 6-2 6-7 7-6.

France celebrated in a team huddle and sang the Marseillaise with the home crowd joining in.

“I knew it was going to be difficult and I had a big fright when they started to play in the third set and won the tiebreak,” France coach Guy Forget told French television.

“I hope it’s just the beginning of a long story for that bunch of players. They were just great and I hope they will play with the same faith in September.”

Llodra said he hoped France, who were last in the final in 2002, would go on and win the trophy.

“For the record, I was 11 when I watched Guy (Forget) and Henri (Leconte) beat the United States in the final of the Davis Cup in 1991. It has always been my dream to emulate them.

“We have beaten the holders and it’s fantastic.”

Even without world No. 1 Rafael Nadal, resting his knees after his French Open and Wimbledon triumphs, Spain fielded a powerful team but the writing was on the wall when they lost both of Friday’s singles.

Gael Monfils beat David Ferrer in five sets before Llodra saw off Verdasco 6-7 6-4 6-3 7-6.

Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko said he was not sure whether he would play the first reverse singles on Sunday after he and Igor Kunitsyn were beaten by Zeballos and Schwank.

Davydenko, the world No. 6, was beaten by David Nalbandian on Friday in the singles and was clearly below-par again on Saturday.

“We have a small hope for tomorrow and it’s going to be very difficult, as being 2-1 down is not so easy,” Davydenko said.

Serbia need just one more point on Sunday to beat Croatia in Split after Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic scored a crucial victory over Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in the doubles.

In Sunday’s reverse singles, Cilic faces world number two Novak Djokovic with Ivan Ljubicic, back after a three-year Davis Cup retirement to help the injury-stricken Croatia team, up against 44th-ranked Viktor Troicki.

“We believe Cilic can put up another great performance in the singles clash, it’s not over yet,” Croatia coach Goran Prpic told reporters.