The Italian team Wins Historic Third Consecutive Tennis Trophy Championship
Flavio Cobolli won one of the longest deciding set in Davis Cup records to defeat Belgium's Zizou Bergs during the semi-finals
Flavio Cobolli and his compatriot guided Italy to Davis Cup glory as the home team beat the Spanish team to capture a record-breaking third successive championship in front of an overjoyed local supporters
48 hours after he narrowly won a marathon 32-point tie-break, Cobolli returned to excelled as he recovered from a set and a break down to beat his Spanish opponent in three sets
The 23-year-old's tenacious 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 success secured a straight sets triumph for his nation in the Italian city after his teammate had prevailed 6-3 6-4 against the Spanish player
It is a fourth Davis Cup victory overall for the Italian team, who are the first nation to achieve three straight titles since title holders stopped receiving direct entry to the championship match over five decades back
Home Crowd Fuels Italian Victory
Supported enthusiastically by the overwhelming number of a packed 10,000-strong audience, the Italian star overcame a slow start to spark moments of celebration among the Italian athletes, coaches and supporters
The champion was surrounded by his teammates on the playing surface but took a brief time to commend his opponent on his performance before returning to the festivities
Star Performers Step Up in Missing Stars
Both the Italian squad and the Spanish team reached the championship match even with missing star athletes, with the absence of top-ranked players denying fans a seventh meeting of the season between the top-ranked men's players
But, with national second-ranked Lorenzo Musetti too missing, Cobolli and Berrettini owned their moments in the limelight with perfect records from all their matches apiece this week
Thrilling Comeback Secures Victory
The crowd chanted the player's name as he maintained his calm to serve out his comeback victory to love, having forced the breakthrough in the penultimate game of a nail-biting deciding set
That was quite an accomplishment, given he had admitted he had realized a "goal" in delivering Italy to the final on home soil
In opposition to the events of the previous match, when the athlete removed his shirt in celebration on "one of the best" days of his life, the ranked player paid the price for a slow start as he conceded a dominant opening set
But Cobolli launched a essential, swift comeback after going a break down at the beginning of the following set
Cobolli's fortunes seemed to change after a brief stop in play when a member of the audience became unwell
When the match resumed, and with Munar down break point, the player lobbed over a volley that caught a fortunate net tape and put the set to deuce
Although annoyingly denied four set points on his rival's serve, Cobolli wrested command of a decisive breaker to push the final set - where he yet again performed
The Veteran Extends Impressive Run
The Italian star had previously extended his team competition singles winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an excellent performance against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up used his third break point for a 5-3 lead before assuredly closing the first set to love
Having taken 11 of the last 13 points to secure the first set, Berrettini appeared ready to tighten his grip on the match upon creating two break points in the initial game of the following set
Carreno Busta managed to save each before producing a sequence of strong serving performances - but the Italian took his following chance and served out to love to complete his triumph