Mark Philippoussis played the match of his career yesterday as Australia swept to a 3-2 final win over France and sealed their first Davis Cup triumph in 13 years.

Philippoussis downed Cedric Pioline 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 to give the Australians an unbeatable 3-1 lead before Sebastien Grosjean salvaged some Gallic pride by beating Lleyton Hewitt in a light-hearted dead rubber.

Australia's first win since 1986 saw them lift the trophy for the 27th time - a record bettered only by the United States, who have won 31 times.

Philippoussis, who last year refused to play in the competition after disagreements with captain John Newcombe, was transformed from villain to hero after his second singles win of the tie on a clay court that was expected to favour the French.

"This is the biggest moment of my life," Philippoussis said. "I've never concentrated or played as well as I did today. I've made mistakes in the past, sure, but I've learned from them."

He was ice-cool under immense pressure as he overpowered Pioline in 2 hr 42 min, slamming down 15 aces and hitting 54 outright winners to his opponents' 32.

"It is the best match Mark has played with his head in his life," Newcombe said. "He didn't have any highs or lows in the match - just highs."

"Mark played a very, very good match today. He was very consistent," said a tearful Pioline. "Maybe he was lucky with the net and the lines sometimes, but he deserved to win. He played a big, big match."

"I can honestly say I heard no noise today - nothing," said Philippoussis of his phenomenal concentration.

Grosjean later beat 18-year-old Hewitt 6-4, 6-3 in the second reverse singles.

The Australians went into the final day with a 2-1 lead after Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge beat Fabrice Santoro and Olivier Delaitre 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 in Saturday's doubles.

Every team that has won the trophy over the past 21 years has won the doubles in the final - and this year proved no exception.

Philippoussis, who improved his Cup singles record to 8-4, romped through the first set in just 37 min, breaking Pioline's fragile serve in the first and ninth games.

The Frenchman had trouble with his ball toss and was successful with only 38 per cent of his first serves, while Philippoussis served at 67 percent and had an ace in each of his service games.

The tall 23-year-old from Melbourne, known as "Scud" because of his power, was extremely focussed and was content to wait for 13th-ranked Pioline to make errors.

After not conceding more than two points in any service game in the first set, 19th-ranked Philippoussis was broken in the opening game of the second set.

He swiftly got back to 2-2 and had a set point in the 10th game before two-time Grand Slam finalist Pioline began to grow in confidence, reeling off three straight games to take the set 7-5 and level the match at one-set all.

Rather than building on his success, Pioline was rocked in the third set as former US Open finalist Philippoussis hit the ball more cleanly and deeply to race to a 5-0 lead. He took the set 6-1 to stun the vociferous sell-out 10,000 crowd at the Acropolis Exhibition Centre.

When Philippoussis broke Pioline's serve to 15 in the third game of the fourth set, the writing was on the wall for the French number one. A further break in the seventh game sealed matters.

"I felt joy, complete joy," said Philippoussis of his feelings after the final point. "I felt like doing cartwheels. Doing a back-flip. This is the start of my tennis career."

It was the first trophy win as Australian captain for Newcombe, who took over in 1994 after helping lift the Davis Cup four times as a player.