Singles wins for Matteo Berrettini over Botic Van de Zandschulp and Flavio Cobolli over Tallon Griekspoor secured Italy a win over the Netherlands in the Davis Cup Group A in Bologna. Italy had already advanced to the Final 8 after Brazil’s win over Belgium.
Italy maintained their unbeaten record in the Davis Cup Finals, topping Group A with three wins from three ties.
The Netherlands secured the second spot beating Brazil and Belgium by a a very narrow margin thanks to a sets count-back after all three teams ended on 1-2 ties, with 4-5 matches won-lost.
The Dutch needed to win at least one match in the final tie against Italy to overtake Brazil in sets won and secure the second qualifying spot. Wesley Koolhof and Botic Van de Zandchulp beat Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 in the doubles match to seal the spot for the Final 8 which will be held in Malaga next November.
Both singles matches went to the third set. Berrettini came back from one set down to beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 3-6 6-4 6-4. Van de Zandschulp recently beat Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open. Berrettini had a perfect 3-0 win-loss record. Earlier last week Brazilian Next Gen star Joao Fonseca 6-1 7-6 (7-5) and Belgium’s Alexander Blockx 3-6 6-2 7-5.
“I am really proud of what we are doing. The team is really big, with a lot of strong players. We did not play with the best two ranked players and we qualified. It means that Italian tennis is really healthy”, said Berrettini.
Italy won the Davis Cup beating Australia in the final last season claiming this title for the first time in 47 years.
Italy will face a tough opposition in the Knock-out stage in Malaga.
The Spanish team led by Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz won Group B ahead of last year’s runners-up Australia.
Spain crowned the Davis Cup week in Valencia with a 2-1 win over Australia.
“The fight in all the matches was amazing. The important thing is the mentality, the attitude of the players. In sport you can’t win everything, but I am happy because they all tried their best”, said Spanish team captain David Ferrer.
The United States won Group C in Zhuhai over Germany. Brandon Nakashima ked the USA to a 3-0 sweep as the 23-year-old US player won all three of his singles matches.
Germany beat Chile and Slovakia 3-0 before losing 2-1 agianst the US team. Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz won all three of their doubles matches in straight sets.
Canada and Argentina advanced from Group D in Manchester. Canada was unbeaten during the Davis Cup week. Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov won six points in singles between them and combined to win a doubles match.
The USA have five top 20 players including US Open finalist Taylor Fritz
Jannik Sinner did not play in Bologna but he attended the match to support his teammates. Sinner won his second Grand Slam title at the US Open beating Taylor Fritz earlier this month. Sinner will return to the court at the China Open in Beijing.
In the second match Cobolli beat Griekspoor 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3 to seal the tie.
Italy won all three of their ties with 2-1 wins over Brazil, the Netherlands and Belgium.
