France crashed out of the Billie Jean King Cup on Wednesday after a second defeat in the competition.
Russia, who saw off Canada 3-0 on Tuesday, beat the defending champions 2-1 to top Group A and advance to the semi finals.
In the opening singles rubber at the O2 Arena in Prague, Clara Burel upset the form book to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The world number 77 lost the opening set against a player ranked more than 40 places above her on the ladder.
But the 20-year-old Frenchwoman rallied to take the second set 6-4 against an increasingly erratic opponent. And she powered on to claim the decider 6-3.
Moment
“It is very special, it was my first single match for my country and I'm very happy that I was able to win," said Burel.
But the delight proved short lived for skipper Julien Benneteau and his charges who won the Fed Cup competition in 2019 before it was reconfigured and renamed the Billie Jean King Cup in honour of the legendary American tennis player.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the world number 12, came from a set down to see off Alizé Cornet 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to level the tie at 1-1
Cornet and Burel then linked up for the doubles. But Veronika Kudermetova and Liudmila Samsonova pulverized them 6-2 ,6-1 to take the tie 2-1.
