Italy wins Davis Cup for third straight year by beating Spain in final

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — Italy remains the king of the Davis Cup – and didn’t even need Jannik Sinner this time.

Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli were the stars for the Italians without the absent Sinner, both winning their singles matches to earn an unassailable 2-0 lead over Spain in the final on Sunday.

It’s a fourth Davis Cup title for Italy, and a third in a row. The last nation to win three straight titles was the United States, which won five on the bounce from 1968-72.

The second-ranked Sinner, who led Italy to men’s tennis biggest team trophy the past two years, opted out of playing this week, preferring to prepare for next season instead. No. 8-ranked Lorenzo Musetti wasn’t playing, either.

Italy didn’t need them, winning all three of its matches 2-0 this week in the SuperTennis Arena in Bologna after eliminating Austria in the quarterfinals and Belgium in the semifinals.

Spain was also without its star player — top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.

In Sunday’s final, Berrettini beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4 before Cobolli fought back to beat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5 and clinch the winning point — as he has all three times this week. Cobolli dropped his racket to the ground and was lifted in the air by his Italy teammates.

Italy first won the Davis Cup in 1976, before wins in Malaga in 2023 and ’24. This is the first time it has won on home soil.

Six-time champion Spain was playing in the title match for the first time since 2019.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis