By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, November 23, 2025
Photo: Davis Cup Facebook
Italian flags flowed like holiday lights.
Digging deep, Flavio Cobolli gave the final gift of the championship to the Italian faithful.
A brave Cobolli turned in defeat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 sealing Italy’s third consecutive Davis Cup championship with a 2-0 win over Spain at the SuperTennis Arena in Bologna.
Earlier, Matteo Berrettini beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4 to push Italy into a 1-0 lead and set the stage for Cobolli’s heroics to complete Italy’s Davis Cup treble in front of a wild home crowd.
“It’s impossible to describe these feelings,” said Cobolli. “I dreamed a lot about this night. I don’t know how I won because the match was close.
“Jaume played so well. We can’t lose for our countries if you give everything in your heart, I don’t know what happened today, I don’t know where I am, but all I know is that we are world champions.”
World number 22 Cobolli emerged as a true marathon tennis man this week.
On Friday, Cobolli saved seven match points out of the duel Zizou Bergs 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(15) in a pulsating victory that lasted more than three hours to seal Italy’s semi-final victory over Belgium. The epic came after Berrettini beat Raphael Collignon 6-3, 6-4, prompting Cobolli, who has known Berrettini since he was eight, to say his teammate “is like a brother to me”.
When Cobolli went down on a last-ditch front to close out the day, the entire Italian squad swallowed it up like a festive family reunion.
Frustrated in the opening set, Cobolli switched to his gritty forehand to spark his inspired comeback – just two months after Munar scored a straight-sets victory over the 23-year-old Italian at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
At the SuperTennis Arena, Italy reinforced its reputation as a tennis superpower.
Photo: Davis Cup Facebook
“I think Jaume played really well in the first set and I was a little nervous,” Cobolli said. “I was shaky with my game. I looked at my bench and found something in my body and my heart and gave everything for this team. Like I said before: I’m a world champion.”
After winning the Cup, Cobolli knelt down and kissed the pitch before rising to kiss the Italian flag on his chest in a passionate embrace of the biggest game of his career.
“It’s amazing,” Cobolli said. “I invite everyone I want to come today and my family is here, my friends, my brother, my girlfriend. I’m happy. I want to celebrate with the whole team.”
In a dramatic Davis Cup final, both nations competed without their superstar champions.
World No. 1, Carlos Alcaraz went out of the field due to an injury to the right thigh, while Spanish captain David Ferrer chose against selection Alejandro Davidovich Fokina reportedly due to the world number 14 bailing out of a Davis Cup match earlier this season. You can’t blame captain Ferrer for the selection of players he did, as they all showed tremendous heart in leading Spain to their first Davis Cup final since 2019.
Wimbledon champion and World No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to its last two Davis Cup and world championships No. 8 Lorenzo Musettiwhose partner, Veronica, is pregnant and expecting the couple’s second child.
In the end, Italian captain Filippo Volandri shed tears of joy at the pride his players showed this week. Italy did not lose a single match in the quarter-finals, semi-finals or final, winning all six singles events.
It is Italy’s fourth Davis Cup championship overall that comes almost 50 years after the legend Adriano Panatta, the only man to beat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros twice, led the Italians to the 1976 Cup.
“It’s the third victory in a row, but I’m crying and I didn’t cry for the first one,” said Volandri. “It’s unbelievable. We’ve had a lot of tough times even if it doesn’t look like it.
“As a group we had the power to manage this moment. It was as if Jannik and Musetti were here. Only if you have a great team can you make this incredible result. It’s incredible. Time to enjoy.”
Think of Munar and his fellow Spaniards who raced with energy all weekend.
The back of the Spanish team was against the wall, 0-1 today. Munar put Spain on his shoulders and rose to perfection in perhaps his best opening set of the season.
Flying with passion from the first ball, Munar hit Cobolli winning six points in a row to open the second singles match.
When Cobolli dropped an obvious break point shot, Munar responded with a ferocious Federer over the shoulder extending the point and finishing with a forehand winner for break point. Attacking from a back-line, Munar unleashed a backhand volley to break for 2-0
Another gutsy drive to the line helped Munari get the break back as he leapt into the air on his way to the team bench with a 3-0 lead.
A shell-shocked Cobolli won three break points – and five break points in total – in a tense fifth game. Munar would not give up, escaping all five break points and standing tall through a 10-minute stoppage for 5-0.
It took Coboll 31 minutes to finally get on the board.
This was a brief repricing. Munar put down a love hold to grab the first set with a “Vamos!”
Munar hit 13 winners, including some spectacular shots, in a remarkable 33-minute set. Getting right back to work, the Spaniard shook off the early mistakes to start the second set with a break.
Recovering, Cobolli went right back to the pressure in the second game. The Italian won break point, then a fan apparently fell ill in the SuperTennis Arena fans leading to a delay of around nine minutes.
When play resumed, Munar immediately saved a break point and then saved a third break point. A Cobolli volley kissed the top of the bar and slowly dribbled to the Spaniard’s side as he won his fourth break point. When Munar scored a lead, the Italian was level at 1-all.
None of them could threaten service for most of the group, creating a few lobs in time to smooth out the trouble.
Serving at 5-6 to force a tie, Munar faced great stress as he swept two points. The Spaniard used a great serve and volley to save the third set point. Facing the fourth set point, Munar again served and volleyed, hitting a sharp forehand volley.
Denied four set points, a reinvigorated Munar hit back-to-back aces to force the tiebreaker.
Cobolli, an excellent draw player in 2025, immediately imposed his inside-out advantage. The Italian drilled back-to-back diagonal winners, then dropped a shot to make it 4-1.
Calmly waiting for the ball to drop, Cobollo created a jump shot for three more set points.
On his seventh set point, Cobolli came in and rocketed a forehand down the line to close out the second set and bounced high off the court like it was a springboard to force the final set.
In one match the pair were separated a bit, Coboll’s guts getting the better of him. Stuck in the 5th, Cobolli was firing his power with menacing intent earning triple break points.
On his third break point, Cobolli erupted in a big bang and a massive inside-out break for 6-5.
With the Davis Cup gleaming on his shoulder, Cobolli flew across the finish line serving the match of his life convincingly with a love hold to win the Cup in two hours and 56 minutes.
Matteo Berrettini d. Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4
Matteo Berrettini opened this final by throwing the hammer Pablo Carreno Busta6-3, 6-4 to give Italy a 1-0 lead.
Plagued by injuries in recent years, Berrettini solidified his status as a Davis Cup fighter.
“Very proud of myself, proud of my teammates, my coaches, everyone who made this final possible,” Berrettini said afterwards. “I am very happy to be here.
“I tried to enjoy myself there as much as I could. I’m very proud, very happy that my family is here watching. It’s one of those moments that I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Both Berrettini and Carreno Busta stayed steady until the eighth inning.
A series of deep returns from the Italian earned him three breaks. Targeting his opponent’s weaker arm, Carreno Busta saved two break points.
On the third break point, Berrettini’s arm clipped the tape and fell to the sideline. Following him forward, Berrettini instinctively latched on to the cross and carved out a fine volley, breaking for 5-3 and prompting the Italian side to erupt in roaring support.
Berrettini served the set with love.
The 2021 Wimbledon finalist fired six aces against no double faults in the 35-minute stretch. The heavy-hitting Berrettini hit seven more winners—10 to 3—in the first set.
Scoreboard pressure and a series of screeching returns from Berrettini helped the Italian break the Spaniard’s serve in the ninth game of the second set.
Down love-30, Carreno Busta tried to attack the Italian’s backhand, but Berrettini was waiting and hit a two-handed cross-court pass for triple break point.
On his second break point, Berrettini hit a deep return right down the middle that crashed into the Spaniard’s shoelaces for the decisive break at 5-4.
Bouncing back, Berrettini clinched it convincingly by serving the match at love and erupting with a primal scream before embracing Italy captain Filippo Volandri in a bear hug.
The Italian fans were jumping up and down as Berrettini completed a perfect 3-0 week in singles play without dropping a set. Berrettini has not lost a Davis Cup singles match since bowing out to Taylor Fritz in 2019.
The 29-year-old Rome resident, who went 5-0 in singles play to help the Italians capture the 2024 Davis Cup, recorded his 11th consecutive Davis Cup singles victory to set the stage for teammate Flavio Cobolli to win the Cup.
