BOLOGNA, Italy — Italy is still the Davis Cup champion, and this time they didn’t even need Jannik Sinner.
Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli were the stars of Italy’s squad in the absence of Sinner, with both players taking a solid 2-0 lead over Spain in Sunday’s final in their singles matches.
This is Italy’s fourth Davis Cup title and third in a row. The last country to win three times in a row was the United States, which won five times in a row from 1968 to 1972.
Second-ranked Sinner, who has led Italy to the men’s tennis team’s biggest trophy in the past two years, declined to play this week and instead prioritized preparing for next season. Lorenzo Musetti, who is ranked 8th, also did not participate.
Italy didn’t need them, winning all three matches 2-0 at Bologna’s Supertennis Arena this week, after defeating Austria in the quarter-finals and Belgium in the semi-finals.
Spain is also without their top star player, Carlos Alcaraz.
In Sunday’s final, Berrettini defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4, before Cobolli fought back to defeat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5, taking points from all three matches this week. Cobolli dropped his racket to the ground and was hoisted into the air by his Italian teammates.
Italy won the Davis Cup for the first time in 1976, followed by victories in Malaga in 2023 and 2024. This is the first time Italy has won on home soil.
Six-time champions Spain are playing in the title match for the first time since 2019.
