The Italian team Clinches Historic Third Consecutive Davis Cup Title
Flavio Cobolli won one of the longest deciding set in Davis Cup records to beat Belgium's Zizou Bergs during the semi-finals
Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini propelled the Italian squad to Davis Cup victory as the home team overcame the Spanish team to claim a record-breaking third successive championship in front of an ecstatic local supporters
48 hours following he narrowly won a marathon 32-point tie-break, Cobolli once again shone as he fought back from behind in sets to defeat his Spanish opponent in three sets
The 23-year-old's gritty 1-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win secured a straight sets triumph for his country in the Italian city after Berrettini had prevailed 6-3 6-4 against the Spanish player
It is a fourth Davis Cup victory overall for Italy, who are the first nation to win three straight titles since defending champions no longer received automatic qualification to the final 53 years ago
Home Crowd Inspires Italian Victory
Backed passionately by the overwhelming number of a packed 10,000-strong audience, the Italian star conquered a slow start to trigger moments of jubilation among the team players, staff and supporters
Cobolli was surrounded by his teammates on the playing surface but paused for a moment to commend Munar on his performance before rejoining the festivities
Star Performers Deliver in Missing Stars
Both the Italian squad and the Spanish team reached the final even with being without key players, with the absence of top-ranked players preventing spectators a seventh matchup of the season between the world's dominant men's players
But, with Italian number two Lorenzo Musetti also absent, Cobolli and Berrettini owned their opportunities in the limelight with perfect records from three singles matches apiece this week
Thrilling Comeback Seals Win
The audience shouted Cobolli's name as he kept his composure to serve out his recovery triumph to love, having forced the decisive break in the penultimate game of a nail-biting final set
That was no mean feat, given he had admitted he had achieved a "goal" in delivering his nation to Sunday's showpiece on domestic ground
In contrast to the events of Friday night, when the athlete removed his jersey in celebration on "one of the best" moments of his life, the ranked player faced the price for a poor beginning as he conceded a one-sided opening set
But Cobolli launched a essential, immediate comeback after falling a break down at the beginning of the following set
The Italian's fortunes seemed to shift after a nine-minute pause in the match when a spectator of the crowd became ill
When play resumed, and with Munar facing break point, the player lobbed over a volley that caught a lucky net cord and brought the set back on level terms
Although annoyingly prevented multiple opportunities on his rival's service game, Cobolli seized command of a decisive breaker to force the final set - where he once again performed
The Veteran Continues Remarkable Winning Streak
The Italian star had earlier taken his Davis Cup individual victory run to 11 matches with an excellent display against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up converted his decisive opportunity for a advantage before confidently closing the first set to love
Having taken 11 of the last 13 points to take the opening set, Berrettini looked set to tighten his hold on the contest upon forcing two break points in the opening game of the following set
His opponent succeeded to survive both before producing a sequence of solid service games - but Berrettini took his following chance and served out to zero to finish his victory