Italy Clinches Historic Third Straight Tennis Trophy Title

Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini propelled Italy to Davis Cup success as the home team overcame Spain to secure a historic third consecutive championship in front of an ecstatic local supporters

48 hours after he narrowly won a marathon 32-point decider, Cobolli returned to shone as he battled back from a set and a break down to overcome Jaume Munar in three sets

The 23-year-old's tenacious 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win sealed a 2-0 triumph for his country in Bologna after his teammate had prevailed in straight sets against the Spanish player

It is a fourth overall team championship title overall for the Italian team, who are the initial country to achieve three straight championships since title holders stopped receiving automatic qualification to the championship match over five decades back

Home Crowd Fuels Italian Victory

Supported enthusiastically by the vast majority of a packed 10,000-strong crowd, Cobolli conquered a slow start to spark moments of jubilation among the team athletes, staff and supporters

The champion was mobbed by his teammates on the playing surface but paused for a brief time to praise Munar on his performance before returning to the celebrations

Star Performers Deliver in Absence

Both Italy and the Spanish team reached the final even with missing key players, with the non-participation of top-ranked players preventing fans 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 spotlight with perfect records from three singles matches apiece this week

Dramatic Recovery Seals Win

The crowd shouted Cobolli's moniker as he kept his composure to serve out his comeback victory to love, having forced the decisive break in the 11th game of a nail-biting deciding set

That was quite an accomplishment, given he had stated he had achieved a "goal" in delivering his nation to Sunday's final on domestic ground

In contrast to the events of the previous match, when the athlete removed his shirt in celebration on "one of the best" moments of his career, the world number 22 paid the consequence for a slow start as he conceded a one-sided opening set

But Cobolli launched a essential, immediate response after going a behind at the start of the second

The Italian's luck appeared to shift after a brief pause in the match when a spectator of the crowd became ill

When play continued, and with his opponent down a critical moment, the player floated over a shot that caught a lucky net cord and put the game to deuce

Although annoyingly denied four set points on his rival's serve, Cobolli wrested control of a decisive breaker to push the final set - where he once again performed

Berrettini Continues Impressive Winning Streak

Berrettini had earlier taken his Davis Cup singles winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an superb performance against Carreno Busta

The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his decisive opportunity for a 5-3 lead before confidently closing the opener to zero

Having won the majority of points to secure the opening set, Berrettini looked set to strengthen his grip on the contest upon creating opportunities in the initial game of the second

His opponent succeeded to save both before putting together a sequence of solid service games - but Berrettini seized his following chance and served out to love to finish his triumph