Largest attendance at a competitive tennis match

The third and final day of the 2014 Davis Cup final between France and Switzerland was played out in front of a crowd of 27,448 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille, France, on 23 November 2014. Switzerland's first ever Davis Cup triumph was confirmed when 17-time Grand Slam champion and world number two Roger Federer brushed aside home favourite Richard Gasquet 6–4, 6–2, 6–2 to give the visitors an unassailable 3–1 lead. On the opening day of the final, 21 November, a then record 27,432 spectators packed into Stade Pierre-Mauroy to witness victories for Switzerland's world number four, Stan Wawrinka, and Frenchman Gael Monfils on the indoor clay court. The largest recorded attendance at any tennis match was 35,681, when Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat Serena Williams (USA) 6-3, 6-2 in an exhibition match umpired by Martina Navratilova at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, on 8 July 2010. That match was inspired by the "Battle of the Sexes" encounter between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs (both USA) at the Houston Astrodome in Texas, USA, on 20 September 1973, which itself attracted a crowd of 30,472.

The previous record for a competitive tennis match was 26,600, set during the 2004 Davis Cup final between Spain and the USA at Estadio de La Cartuja (aka Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla) in Seville, Spain, on 3-5 December. Spain won the final (played indoors on clay) 3-2.

The 2014 Davis Cup final featured the following matches:

Day 1 (21 November, attendance 27,432): Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Gael Monfils (France) beat Roger Federer (Switzerland) 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. France 1 Switzerland 1.

Day 2 (22 November, attendance 27,360): Federer and Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat Richard Gasquet and Julien Benneteau (France) 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. Switzerland 2 France 1.

Day 3 (23 November, attendance 27,448): Federer (Switzerland) beat Gasquet (France; replacement for injured Tsonga) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Switzerland 3 France 1. The dead fifth rubber between Monfils and Wawrinka was not played.

Switzerland, runners-up in 1992, became the 14th country to win the Davis Cup in its 115-year history. The competition, founded by and named after Harvard University tennis player Dwight F Davis in 1900, was formerly known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge and featured just two teams - the United States and The British Isles.

Federer's win against Gasquet was his 50th in the Davis Cup, thus becoming the most successful Swiss David Cup player in history.

The last of France's nine Davis Cup wins was in 2001, and they had beaten Switzerland in 10 of the previous 12 ties between the two nations before the Lille final.

Trivia: The inaugural International Lawn Tennis Challenge (later renamed the Davis Cup) in 1900 was won 3-0 by the United States in Boston, Massachusetts. The fourth match, a dead rubber between competition founder Dwight Davis and the British Isles' Arthur Gore, was abandoned at nine games all in the second set!

Stade Pierre-Mauroy was named after the French Prime Minister (1981-83) and Mayor of Lille (1973-2001). Mauroy died in June 2013, 10 months after the 50,000-capacity stadium was opened.