Italy won a third Davis Cup in as many years on Sunday after beating Spain 2-0 in front of delighted home fans in Bologna and completing a treble without star player Jannik Sinner.
Flavio Cobolli sparked wild celebrations when he came from a set down to beat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 and ensure Italy retained their title.
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Matteo Berrettini had already scored a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Pablo Carreno Busta, setting up Filippo Volandri’s team for victory without needing to play the doubles match.
“It was my dream, we are a really united team and we tried to recreate the spirit of the Italian team that won the (soccer) World Cup in 2006,” Cobolli said.
“I’m really proud of everyone and our brilliant fans are part of this team too. I’ve been rehearsing for three days but this is the happiest day of my life.”
Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori were not employed in a doubles competition in northern Italy as the hosts won the Davis Cup without losing a single match.
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It was an impressive feat from Italy who competed without their two highest-ranked players, superstar Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti.
Both players are in the top 10 of the men’s world rankings and were major absentees from the tournament, especially since they opted out of the title defense on home soil.
“No matter who is going to play for us, we have a strong team and we have a lot of good guys playing great tennis,” Berrettini said.
Spain was also missing its best player, world number one Carlos Alcaraz, but the six-time Grand Slam winner would have played had he not suffered a hamstring injury during his ATP finals showdown with Sinner a week ago.
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Their bid for a seventh Davis Cup failed after returning to the final for the first time since 2019.
“It was a very, very, very close tie,” said Spain captain David Ferrer. “We were really close.”
“Italy plays very well in the important moments,” he added. “It’s not easy for us to play in Italy against Italy.”
Earlier on Sunday, the president of the International Tennis Federation insisted that top players were not snubbing competition.
“There’s this false feeling that the best players don’t represent their nation. That’s not true,” David Haggerty told reporters before the final.
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“Some of the top players who played in the qualifying round or the second qualifying round didn’t make it to the final. So we had a lot of top players playing.”
The American Taylor Fritz, the Australian Alex de Minaur, the Dane Holger Rune and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, all present in the top 20 of the men’s ranking, participated in the first rounds of the competition without managing to reach the final with their respective nations.
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