By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, November 23, 2025Photo credit: Davis Cup Facebook
Italian flags were streaming like holiday lights.
Digging down deep, Flavio Cobolli delivered the ultimate championship gift to the Italian faithful.
A courageous Cobolli roared back to defeat Jaume Munar 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 clinching host Italy’s third consecutive Davis Cup championship with a 2-0 victory over Spain at the SuperTennis Arena in Bologna.
Earlier, Matteo Berrettini beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4 to stake Italy to a 1-0 lead and set the stage for Cobolli’s heroics completing Italy’s Davis Cup triple crown before raucous home fans.
“It’s impossible to describe these feelings,” Cobolli said. “I dreamed a lot of this night. I don’t know how I won because the match was tight.
“Jaume played so good. We cannot lose for our countries if you give all of what you have in your heart, I don’t know what happened today, I don’t know where I am, but everything I know is we are world champions.”
World No. 22 Cobolli emerged as a true tennis marathon man this week.
On Friday, Cobolli saved seven match points out-dueling Zizou Bergs 6-3 6-7(5) 7-6(15) in a pulsating victory that spanned more than three hours to clinch Italy’s semifinal win over Belgium. That epic came after Berrettini beat Raphael Collignon 6-3, 6-4, prompting Cobolli, who has known Berrettini since he was eight years old to remark his teammate “is like a brother to me.”
When Cobolli crashed one final forehand to close today, the entire Italian team swarmed him like a festive family reunion.
Blown out in the opening set, Cobolli rode his fierce forehand to ignite his inspired comeback—just two months after Munar scored a straight-sets win over the 23-year-old Italian at the Rolex Shanghai Masters.
At the SuperTennis Arena, Italy reinforced its reputation as a tennis super power.
Photo credit: Davis Cup Facebook
“I think Jaume played very well in the first set I was a little nervous,” Cobolli said. “I was shaky with my game. I looked at my bench and I found something on my body and my heart and I gave everything for this team. As I said before: I’m world champion.”
After clinching the Cup, Cobolli knelt down and kissed the court then arose to kiss the Italian flag on his chest embracing the biggest match of his career with passion.
“It’s amazing,” Cobolli said. “I invite everyone that I really want to come today and my family is here, my friends, my brother, my girlfriend. I’m just happy. I want to celebrate with all the team.”
In a dramatic Davis Cup final both nations competed without their champion superstars.
World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz was sidelined with a right hamstring injury, while Spanish Captain David Ferrer opted against selecting Alejandro Davidovich Fokina reportedly due to the world No. 14 bailing out of a Davis Cup tie earlier this season. You can’t fault Captain Ferrer for picking the players he did as all showed tremendous heart carrying Spain to its first Davis Cup final since 2019.
Wimbledon champion and world No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to its last two Davis Cup championship, and world No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti, whose 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 drop a match in the quarterfinals, semifinals or final winning all six singles contests.
It is Italy’s fourth Davis Cup championship overall coming nearly 50 years after legendary Adriano Panatta, the only man to beat Bjorn Borg at Roland Garros twice, led the Italians to the 1976 Cup.
“It’s the third win in the row, but I’m crying and I didn’t cry for the first one,” Volandri said. “It’s unbelievable. We had a lot of tough moments even if it doesn’t look like it.
“As a group we had the power to manage this moment. It was like Jannik and Musetti was here. Only if you have a big team can you do this unbelievable result. It’s incredible. Time to enjoy.”
Spare a thought for Munar and his Spanish teammates who competed with vigor throughout the weekend.
The Spanish squad’s back was against the wall down 0-1 today. Munar put Spain on his shoulders and elevated in excellence in arguably his best opening set of the season.
Flying with passion from the first ball, Munar blitzed Cobolli winning six straight points to open the second singles match.
When Cobolli threw down an apparent point-ending smash, Munar answered with an outrageous Federer-esque backhand flick over the shoulder extending the point and finishing with a forehand winner for break point. Attacking behind a backhand return down the line, Munar blasted a backhand swing volley breaking for 2-0
Another bold backhand down the line helped Munar back up the break as he leaped high in the air on his way to the team bench with a 3-0 lead.
A shell-shocked Cobolli earned triple break point—and five break points in all—in a tense fifth game. Munar would not yield fending off all five break points and standing tall through a 10-minute hold for 5-0.
It took Cobolli 31 minutes to finally get on the board.
That was a brief reprice. Munar threw down a love hold to snatch the first set with a loud “Vamos!”
Munar cracked 13 winners, including some spectacular strikes, in an outstanding 33-minute set. Getting right back to work, the Spaniard drained forehand errors to start the second set with the break.
Resetting, Cobolli came right back to pressure in the second game. The Italian earned break point then a fan apparently fell ill in the SuperTennis Arena fans leading to about a nine-minute delay.
When play resumed, Munar immediately saved a break point then saved a third break point. A Cobolli volley kissed the top of the tape and slowly dribbled over on the Spaniard’s side as he earned a fourth break point. When Munar netted a forehand, the Italian was level at 1-all.
Neither man could threaten serve for much of the rest of the set with both creating some timely lobs to tame trouble.
Serving at 5-6 to force the tiebreaker, Munar faced severe stress erasing two set points. The Spaniard used the slick serve and volley to save a third set point. Facing a fourth set point, Munar again serve-and-volleyed hitting a sharp backhand volley.
Denying four set points, a revitalized Munar slammed successive aces to force the tiebreaker on the ascension.
Cobolli, an excellent tiebreaker player in 2025, immediately imposed his inside-out forehand. The Italian drilled diagonal forehand winners in succession then threw down a smash for 4-1.
Calmly awaiting the ball to drop, Cobollo crunched a bounce smash for three more set points.
On his seventh set point, Cobolli stepped in and rocketed a forehand down the line to seal the second set and leaped high off the court as if it were a trampoline forcing the final set.
In a match were little separated the pair, Cobolli’s guts carried him through. Deadlocked at 5-all, Cobolli was firing his forehand with menacing intent earning triple break point.
On his third break point, Cobolli erupted in a huge grunt and massive inside-out forehand breaking for 6-5.
With the Davis Cup gleaming over his shoulder, Cobolli flew through the finish line serving out the match of his life with conviction with a love hold to clinch the Cup in two hours, 56 minutes.
Matteo Berrettini d. Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4
Matteo Berrettini opened this final dropping the hammer on Pablo Carreno Busta, 6-3, 6-4 to stake Italy to a 1-0 lead.
Beset by injuries in recent years, Berrettini solidified his status as Davis Cup warrior.
“So proud of myself, proud of my teammates, my coaches everyone who made this final possible,” Berrettini said afterward. “I’m really happy for the fact I’m here.
“I tried to enjoy out there as much as I could. I’m really proud, really happy my family is here watching. It’s one of those moments I’m gonna remember the rest of my life.”
Both Berrettini and Carreno Busta held firm until the eighth game.
A series of deep returns from the Italian earned him triple break point. Targeting his opponent’s weaker backhand wing, Carreno Busta saved two break points.
On the third break point, Berrettini’s forehand clipped the tape and fell on the sideline. Following it forward, Berrettini instinctively covered the crosscourt pass and carved a fine backhand drop volley breaking for 5-3 and inciting the Italian team to erupt with roaring support.
Berrettini served out the set at love.
The 2021 Wimbledon finalist fired six aces against no double faults in the 35-minute opener. The heavy-hitting Berrettini hit seven more winners—10 to 3—in the first set.
Scoreboard pressure and a series of crackling Berrettini returns helped the Italian pierce the Spaniard’s serve in the ninth game of set two.
Down love-30, Carreno Busta tried attacking the Italian’s backhand, but Berrettini was waiting and whipped a two-handed crosscourt pass for triple break point.
On his second break point, Berrettini pounded a deep return right down the middle that churned at the Spaniard’s shoelaces scoring the crucial break for 5-4.
Reaching back, Berrettini closed with conviction serving out the match at love and erupting with a primal scream before embracing Italian captain Filippo Volandri in a bear hug.
Italian fans were bouncing up and down as Berrettini capped a perfect 3-0 week of play in singles without surrendering a set. Berrettini has not lost a Davis Cup singles match since bowing to Taylor Fritz in 2019.
The 29-year-old Rome resident, who went 5-0 in singles play helping the Italians capture the 2024 Davis Cup, scored his 11th consecutive Davis Cup singles victory to set the stage for teammate Flavio Cobolli to clinch the Cup.
