A victory against Belgium was the key to next Sunday's Davis Cup final. Now, after the triumph of the Italians, who defeated captain Steve Darcis's team without needing to play doubles, the dream of lifting the Silver Salad Bowl for the third consecutive year is becoming increasingly tangible. With a nearly sold-out Super Tennis Arena packed with nearly 10,000 fans, Italy's Matteo Berrettini and, most importantly, Flavio Cobolli, who won the decisive second singles match after one of the longest tie breaks in Davis Cup history, helped propel Italy to the semifinals.

Among the audience was football icon Edoardo Bove, a close friend of Cobolli since childhood, who came to Pavilion 37 at BolognaFiere to cheer him on up close.

Berrettini lived up to expectations in his first match, defeating Belgian Raphael Collignon in two sets, 6-3 and 6-3. The match lasted an hour and a half, but the second set was definitely the most closely contested.

Commenting shortly after the match, Berrettini confirmed that he'd been "worried" that, at a certain point, his opponent might turn the tide. "I made it a little difficult for myself, sorry, but in the end it went well. I fought as always until the end, giving it all I had," the player still on the court shouted to the crowd.

But the most tense match, the one that kept fans on the edge of their seats until the very end, was played tonight by the other Roman singles player, chosen by captain Filippo Volandri for the second match against Zizou Bergs, ranked 43rd in the world. The Italian, in fact, needed all three sets to beat him, the first two ending 6-3, 6-7, and the decisive final set won in a tie break, a remarkable 17-15: the sixth longest tie break in Davis Cup history, after a match lasting over three hours.

«Today I have to be honest, I took a bit of a risk but this is how I imagined my ideal match, I lived my biggest dream», commented Cobolli immediately after the success : «I dedicate this victory to my mother, who doesn't usually come to these events, to my brother and to a friend of mine who I hope will soon be able to return to playing football», he added referring to Bove.

Now, to find out which team will compete for the symbolic Salad Bowl, Italy will have to wait for the outcome of the other semifinal, scheduled for tomorrow, in which they will face Germany and Spain : the Iberian team will have to face the world number three, Alexander Zverev, even in the absence of world champion Carlos Alcaraz, after having managed to eliminate the Czech Republic to reach the doubles.

Italy will also be playing without its forwards, following the withdrawals of Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti: "We are a group of five guys," Cobolli concluded at the end of the grueling match against Belgium, "and today I was able to bring home this victory thanks only to them: we are a very united team that fights for each other and is trying to achieve our dream."

(Unioneonline)

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