The Italian team Secures Historic Third Consecutive Davis Cup Championship
Flavio Cobolli secured one of the longest tie-break in Davis Cup history to overcome Belgium's Zizou Bergs during the semi-finals
Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini led the Italian squad to team tennis victory as the hosts beat Spain to claim a historic third successive title in front of an overjoyed home crowd
Two days following he narrowly won a marathon lengthy tie-break, the Italian talent once again shone as he fought back from behind in sets to defeat Jaume Munar in three sets
The young player's determined 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 triumph sealed a straight sets victory for his country in the Italian city after Berrettini had triumphed 6-3 6-4 against Pablo Carreno Busta
It is a fourth team championship victory in total for the Italian team, who are the first nation to achieve three consecutive championships since defending champions stopped receiving direct entry to the final over five decades back
Local Supporters Inspires Team Italy Triumph
Backed passionately by the vast majority of a packed capacity crowd, the Italian star overcame a slow start to trigger moments of celebration among the team players, coaches and supporters
Cobolli was mobbed by his team-mates on the playing surface but paused for a moment to praise his opponent on his efforts before returning to the celebrations
Key Players Step Up in Absence
Each the Italian squad and the Spanish team made the championship match even with being without key players, with the absence of top-ranked players preventing fans a seventh matchup of 2025 between the top-ranked men's players
But, with Italian second-ranked another key player too missing, Cobolli and Berrettini owned their opportunities in the limelight with perfect records from three singles matches each this week
Dramatic Recovery Seals Victory
The crowd chanted Cobolli's name as he kept his composure to serve out his comeback victory to zero, having forced the breakthrough in the penultimate game of a nail-biting final set
That was no mean feat, given he had stated he had achieved a "goal" in delivering Italy to the showpiece on domestic ground
In opposition to the events of the previous match, when the athlete tore off his shirt in celebration on "among the greatest" moments of his life, the ranked player paid the consequence for a slow start as he conceded a dominant opening set
But Cobolli initiated a essential, swift comeback after falling a break down at the beginning of the second
The Italian's fortunes appeared to change after a nine-minute pause in the match when a spectator of the audience became ill
When the match resumed, and with Munar facing a critical moment, the player floated over a volley that hit a lucky net tape and put the game to deuce
Even though frustratingly prevented multiple opportunities on his rival's serve, Cobolli seized control of a decisive tie-break to force the decider - where he yet again performed
Berrettini Continues Impressive Run
The Italian star had earlier extended his Davis Cup individual winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an excellent performance against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his decisive opportunity for a advantage before assuredly serving out the opener to zero
Having taken 11 of the last 13 points to secure the first set, Berrettini appeared ready to strengthen his grip on the contest upon creating opportunities in the initial game of the second
Carreno Busta managed to survive both before producing a sequence of strong serving performances - but the Italian took his following chance and closed to love to complete his triumph