Flavio Cobolli’s dominant win sends Italy to Davis Cup semifinals

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) — Flavio Cobolli beat Filip Misolic 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday to clinch a 2-0 victory for two-time defending champion Italy over Austria and set up a Davis Cup semifinal against Belgium.

Cobolli sealed his dominant victory with a service winner after 65 minutes to delight the home crowd.

“We all want to win this cup and I felt the support of the bench, it was unbelievable,” Cobolli said. “When I play for them, it is something which I cannot describe.”

The semifinal is scheduled for Friday.

Italy has won 12 straight Davis Cup ties since its last loss — to Canada in the finals group stage in 2023.

Earlier, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini beat Jurij Rodionov 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Berrettini was 5-2 down in the second set before coming back with a break in ninth game. He saved three set points against his 177th-ranked opponent in the following game and prevailed in the tiebreaker by converting his first match point.

Ties are played as a best-of-three matches, so the doubles was not played.

Top-ranked Italy is seeking the third straight title and fourth overall.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to titles in 2023 and 2024, opted to sit out the Davis Cup final this season.

Austria, ranked No. 12, has only beaten Italy once in their previous six encounters — in the 1990 quarterfinals in Vienna, its best result in the team competition.

The Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna is the sixth edition of the revamped event that has the champion decided at a neutral site.

No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, the six-time Grand Slam champion who is coming off a runner-up finish to Sinner at the ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday, withdrew with a hamstring injury.

Spain will take on the No. 4-seeded Czech Republic, and No. 2 Germany will play Argentina in the last two quarterfinals on Thursday.

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