"At that moment the Davis Cup, playing in front of 5,000 fans alongside my best mate, and in front of my whole family, was a long way away", Benneteau said.
Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Marc Lopez 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 in three hours.
Djokovic, who skipped the Miami Masters because of the injury and came into the tie in Belgrade with just seven wins on the tour this year, wrapped up the rubber in style, dropping just one point on serve in the final set against his 24th-ranked opponent.
That's what France's Nicholas Mahut did during a doubles match against Great Britain in the Davis Cup quarterfinals Saturday, though.
"But we played against a very good team and we've still maintained our World Group status, which is important for us".
Led by Murray's strong serve, Britain competed far better than it had in Friday's opening singles, easily won by Lucas Pouille and Jeremy Chardy against Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans.
The 17th-ranked Pouille is France's top player in the absence of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet.
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Tillerson also held what he called a "productive" two-hour long meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said the two sides would also discuss disagreements on Syria and how to end the country's six-year civil war.
A light-hearted first rubber, won 6-1 6-2 by Evans, was punctuated with three members of the French team all playing on the court at the same time.
French veterans Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut outdueled Dominic Inglot and Jamie Murray, 7-6 (7), 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, to give the host an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Great Britain in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
Captain Smith said: "Obviously it's tough losing two rubbers but it was always going to be a hard match on clay".
Great Britain could have done with the world No 1 in Rouen, where a co-ordinated big-card protest in the designated France fanzone of the compact 5,000-seater Kindarena sent an unequivocal message to the International Tennis Federation: "No to the future format".
"Of course, we lack depth, that's pretty bloody obvious", said Smith.
Mahut was robbed of his Wimbledon-winning partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert through injury but Benneteau was hardly a weak substitute - a grand slam victor himself in doubles and a player whose partnership with Mahut goes back to their junior days - they were US Open boys' champions in 1999.
The win sets up an intriguing final day, with Nick Kyrgios getting the chance to win over the Australian public when he takes on Sock in the first of the reverse singles. Steve Darcis and David Goffin of Belgium beat Italy's Paolo Lorenzi and Andreas Seppi respectively on Friday in the singles rubbers to give a 2-0 lead to Belgium.
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