Italy Clinches Historic Third Consecutive Tennis Trophy Title
Flavio Cobolli secured one of the longest tie-break in Davis Cup history to defeat his Belgian opponent on Friday
Flavio Cobolli alongside Matteo Berrettini propelled the Italian squad to Davis Cup success as the home team beat the Spanish team to secure a historic third successive championship in front of an jubilant home crowd
Two days after he narrowly won a marathon 32-point tie-break, Cobolli once again excelled as he fought back from behind in sets to defeat Jaume Munar in a grueling match
The young player's determined comeback victory win secured a straight sets victory for his country in the Italian city after Berrettini had prevailed in straight sets against the Spanish player
It is a fourth overall team championship victory in total for Italy, who are the initial country to achieve three straight titles since title holders stopped receiving automatic qualification to the final 53 years ago
Local Supporters Inspires Italian Triumph
Backed enthusiastically by the overwhelming number of a sell-out capacity audience, Cobolli overcame a poor beginning to trigger scenes of celebration among the team players, staff and fans
Cobolli was surrounded by his team-mates on the playing surface but paused for a moment to commend his opponent on his efforts before returning to the festivities
Star Performers Deliver in Missing Stars
Each Italy and the Spanish team made the final despite missing key players, with the absence of top-ranked players denying fans a seventh meeting of the season between the top-ranked tennis stars
But, with national number two Lorenzo Musetti too missing, Cobolli and Berrettini seized their moments in the spotlight with three wins from all their matches each this week
Dramatic Comeback Secures Win
The audience chanted the player's name as he maintained his composure to close out his comeback triumph to zero, having forced the breakthrough in the 11th game of a nail-biting deciding set
That was quite an accomplishment, given he had admitted he had achieved a "goal" in delivering his nation to the showpiece on home soil
In opposition to the scenes of the previous match, when the athlete removed his shirt in celebration on "among the greatest" days of his life, the world number 22 faced the price for a slow start as he conceded a one-sided first set
But the determined player initiated a necessary, immediate response after going a behind at the beginning of the second
Cobolli's luck appeared to change after a nine-minute stop in play when a member of the crowd became unwell
When play resumed, and with Munar down break point, the player floated over a volley that caught a fortunate net tape and put the game back on level terms
Even though annoyingly prevented four set points on his opponent's service game, the champion seized control of a decisive breaker to force the final set - where he yet again performed
The Veteran Extends Impressive Winning Streak
Berrettini had previously taken his Davis Cup individual winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an superb performance against the Spanish opponent
The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his third break point for a 5-3 lead before confidently serving out the first set to zero
Having won the majority of points to secure the opening set, the player appeared ready to strengthen his hold on the contest upon forcing opportunities in the initial game of the following set
His opponent succeeded to save both before producing a sequence of solid service games - but the Italian took his next opportunity and served out to love to complete his triumph