Italy Clinches Historic Third Straight Davis Cup Championship
Flavio Cobolli won the sixth-longest tie-break in Davis Cup records to beat his Belgian opponent on Friday
Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini guided the Italian squad to team tennis glory as the home team overcame the Spanish team to claim a historic third successive championship in front of an overjoyed local supporters
48 hours following he narrowly won a marathon lengthy decider, Cobolli returned to starred as he battled back from behind in sets to defeat Jaume Munar in a grueling match
The young player's gritty 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 success sealed a straight sets win for his country in Bologna after Berrettini had prevailed 6-3 6-4 against the Spanish player
It is a fourth overall Davis Cup title in total for the Italian team, who are the first nation to win three consecutive titles since defending champions no longer received direct entry to the final 53 years ago
Local Supporters Fuels Team Italy Triumph
Supported enthusiastically by the overwhelming number of a packed capacity audience, the Italian star overcame a slow start to trigger scenes of jubilation among the team athletes, coaches and fans
Cobolli was surrounded by his teammates on the playing surface but took a moment to praise his opponent on his performance before rejoining the celebrations
Star Performers Step Up in Absence
Both the Italian squad and the Spanish team made the final even with missing key players, with the absence of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner preventing spectators a seventh meeting of the season between the top-ranked men's players
But, with national second-ranked Lorenzo Musetti too missing, the Italian duo owned their moments in the limelight with perfect records from three singles matches apiece during the tournament
Dramatic Recovery Secures Win
The crowd shouted Cobolli's moniker as he maintained his composure to serve out his comeback triumph to love, having forced the breakthrough in the 11th game of a tense final set
That was no mean feat, given he had stated he had realized a "dream" in delivering Italy to the showpiece on domestic ground
In opposition to the events of Friday night, when Cobolli removed his jersey in celebration on "among the greatest" moments of his life, the world number 22 paid the price for a poor beginning as he conceded a one-sided opening set
But Cobolli initiated a essential, swift comeback after going a break down at the beginning of the following set
Cobolli's fortunes appeared to change after a brief pause in play when a spectator of the crowd became ill
When the match continued, and with Munar down a critical moment, the player lobbed over a volley that caught a fortunate net cord and brought the game back on level terms
Although annoyingly denied multiple opportunities on his opponent's service game, Cobolli seized control of a must-win tie-break to force the decider - where he yet again performed
Berrettini Continues Impressive Run
The Italian star had previously extended his Davis Cup individual victory run to eleven consecutive wins with an excellent display against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his decisive opportunity for a advantage before assuredly closing the opener to zero
Having taken the majority of points to take the first set, the player looked set to tighten his grip on the contest upon creating opportunities in the opening game of the following set
Carreno Busta managed to survive both before producing a sequence of strong service games - but Berrettini took his next opportunity and served out to love to finish his triumph