Italy Secures Historic Three-Peat Tennis Trophy Championship
Flavio Cobolli won one of the longest deciding set in Davis Cup history to defeat Belgium's Zizou Bergs on Friday
The young Italian star and Matteo Berrettini propelled Italy to team tennis success as the hosts beat the Spanish team to capture a historic third successive title in front of an jubilant local supporters
Two days after he edged an epic lengthy decider, Cobolli once again shone as he fought back from behind in sets to beat Jaume Munar in three sets
The 23-year-old's gritty 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win sealed a straight sets victory for his country in the Italian city after his teammate had triumphed 6-3 6-4 against the Spanish player
It is a fourth team championship victory overall for the Italian team, who are the first nation to win three straight titles since defending champions stopped receiving automatic qualification to the championship match 53 years ago
Home Crowd Inspires Team Italy Triumph
Supported enthusiastically by the vast majority of a packed capacity crowd, Cobolli conquered a poor beginning to trigger moments of jubilation among the Italian athletes, coaches and supporters
The champion was mobbed by his team-mates on the playing surface but took a brief time to commend Munar on his efforts before rejoining the celebrations
Star Performers Deliver in Absence
Each Italy and the Spanish team made the championship match despite being without star athletes, with the non-participation of top-ranked players denying spectators a seventh meeting of the season between the top-ranked tennis stars
But, with Italian number two another key player too absent, the Italian duo seized their opportunities in the limelight with perfect records from all their matches apiece this week
Dramatic Recovery Secures Win
The crowd chanted Cobolli's moniker as he kept his calm to close out his recovery triumph to love, having forced the breakthrough in the penultimate game of a nail-biting final set
That was no mean feat, given he had stated he had achieved a "goal" in delivering Italy to the showpiece on domestic ground
In contrast to the scenes of the previous match, when Cobolli removed his shirt in celebration on "among the greatest" moments of his life, the world number 22 paid the price for a slow start as he lost a one-sided first set
But Cobolli launched a necessary, swift comeback after going a break down at the beginning of the following set
The Italian's luck appeared to change after a brief stop in the match when a spectator of the audience became ill
When the match resumed, and with his opponent down break point, the Italian floated over a shot that caught a fortunate net tape and put the game to deuce
Although annoyingly denied four set points on his rival's serve, Cobolli seized control of a must-win tie-break to force the final set - where he once again performed
The Veteran Extends Remarkable Winning Streak
Berrettini had earlier taken his team competition singles winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an excellent display against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his decisive opportunity for a advantage before assuredly closing the opener to zero
Having taken the majority of points to secure the first set, Berrettini looked set to tighten his hold on the contest upon creating opportunities in the opening game of the second
Carreno Busta succeeded to save both before putting together a sequence of solid serving performances - but Berrettini took his following chance and closed to zero to complete his victory