FRANCE defeated Sweden to win the Davis Cup in dramatic fashion in Malmo last night after they clinched an epic deciding rubber to take the match 3-2.

France's Arnaud Boetsch beat reserve Nicklas Kulti 7-6 2-6 4-6 7-6 10-8 in the thrilling final rubber which lasted more than four hours and was played out in an increasingly noisy atmosphere.

Kulti was only playing as a late replacement for first choice Stefan Edberg who was forced into retirement one match earlier than he envisaged because of injury.

With painful irony Kulti picked up an injury of his own late in the fourth set, but shrugged off his obvious discomfort as the match dragged on with both players almost at a standstill in what became the tightest finish in the Davis Cup history.

At 8-8 in the final set, Kulti was finally broken to love by Boetsch, at last silencing the crowd who had lifted him to a level he could not have suspected himself capable of reaching.

Once undone in that 17th game, it seemed Kulti could offer no opposition in the final game as he was barely able to move such was his exhaustion, but amazingly he was still able to beat off two match points.

He could not beat off a third though, and the French took the Davis Cup. The match could have gone either way and the winner clearly was tennis itself with both players finishing heroes, but sadly only one a winner.

Boetsch took the first set 7-6 against Kulti, but the Swede won the second set 6-2 to make it one each.

To the delight of the home crowd, Kulti carried this form into the third set which he served out to win 6-4. The fourth set went into a tie-break after Kulti, playing the match of his life, held both nerve and serve at 5-6.

Frenchman Boetsch won the tie-break after another battle to take the set 7-6.

By this point, Kulti was already struggling with a combination of fatigue and injury as the fifth and deciding rubber of this final remarkably went into a fifth and deciding set.

Kulti pulled up with an apparently painful leg halfway through the fourth set tie-break, which Boetsch won 7-5. Yet the Swede carried on exhorting the already enthusiastic crowd to be louder still.

Fortune favoured Kulti's bravery as he moved into a 5-4 lead in the final set, drained of energy perhaps, but with admirable spirit.

Boetsch took the score to 5-5 with no tie-break it promised to be survival of the fittest. The match dragged on to 7-7. Boctsch had faced three match points on his serve in the 14th game of the fifth set, but Kulti could not convert any of his opportunities.

Kulti winced with pain in the 15th game, and seemed to be finding it difficult to turn, but incredibly found enough power to again hold his serve for 8-7. But again Boetsch responded for 8-8.

Earlier, Sweden's Thomas Enqvist battled back from two sets down to beat Cedric Pioline 3-6 6-7 (8-10) 6-4 6-4 9-7 and level the match at 2-2.