The Italian team Wins Historic Three-Peat Davis Cup Championship
Flavio Cobolli secured one of the longest deciding set in Davis Cup records to defeat his Belgian opponent during the semi-finals
Flavio Cobolli and his compatriot led Italy to team tennis victory as the home team overcame Spain to claim a historic third consecutive championship in front of an jubilant local supporters
Two days after he narrowly won a marathon 32-point decider, the Italian talent returned to shone as he battled back from behind in sets to defeat Jaume Munar in three sets
The 23-year-old's tenacious comeback victory triumph sealed a 2-0 triumph for his country in Bologna after his teammate had prevailed in straight sets against Pablo Carreno Busta
It is a fourth overall team championship victory in total for Italy, who are the first nation to achieve three straight championships since defending champions stopped receiving automatic qualification to the final 53 years ago
Local Supporters Inspires Team Italy Triumph
Backed enthusiastically by the overwhelming number of a sell-out 10,000-strong crowd, Cobolli overcame a poor beginning to trigger scenes of jubilation among the Italian athletes, staff and supporters
The champion was surrounded by his teammates on the playing surface but took a moment to commend his opponent on his performance before returning to the festivities
Key Players Deliver in Missing Stars
Each Italy and the Spanish team made the championship match despite being without key players, with the absence of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner denying spectators a seventh matchup of the season between the world's dominant men's players
But, with Italian number two another key player also missing, the Italian duo seized their moments in the spotlight with perfect records from all their matches each during the tournament
Thrilling Comeback Seals Win
The crowd shouted the player's name as he maintained his composure to serve out his recovery triumph to zero, having forced the breakthrough in the penultimate game of a nail-biting deciding set
That was no mean feat, given he had stated he had achieved a "goal" in guiding Italy to Sunday's final on home soil
In contrast to the events of Friday night, when Cobolli removed his jersey in jubilation on "one of the best" days of his career, the world number 22 paid the price for a slow start as he conceded a dominant first set
But Cobolli launched a necessary, immediate comeback after falling a behind at the start of the second
Cobolli's fortunes seemed to shift after a nine-minute pause in the match when a member of the audience became unwell
When play resumed, and with his opponent down a critical moment, the player floated over a volley that caught a fortunate net tape and brought the game to deuce
Even though annoyingly denied four set points on his opponent's serve, Cobolli wrested command of a must-win breaker to force the decider - where he yet again performed
The Veteran Continues Impressive Winning Streak
The Italian star had earlier extended his Davis Cup singles victory run to 11 matches with an excellent performance against Carreno Busta
The Grand Slam finalist used his decisive opportunity for a advantage before confidently serving out the first set to love
Having taken 11 of the last 13 points to take the opening set, the player looked set to strengthen his grip on the match upon creating opportunities in the initial game of the second
His opponent managed to survive each before producing a sequence of strong serving performances - but Berrettini took his next opportunity and closed to love to complete his triumph