FOR A second successive year, Italy found what it took to upstage Australia in the Davis Cup, defeating the green and gold to move one win away from defending its 2023 title. While spearheaded by Jannik Sinner who steered the Italians to victory 12 months ago, former Top 5 star Matteo Berrettini showed the glimpses of what he has done in the past to overcome Thanasi Kokkinakis in a first match thriller that ultimately decided the tie.

Italy ended up winning 2-0 which was obviously the preferred option for the Mediterranean nation, given Australia’s doubles combination is one of the best in the world. With Sinner a lock to defeat Alex de Minaur based on their lob-sided head-to-head (8-0 in the Italian’s favour), it all came down to the Berrettini-Kokkinakis match.

Despite Berrettini looking incredibly powerful on serve and only dropping one point off his first serve throughout his first four games, Kokkinakis held on. Even when the Italian had a break point at 4-4, the Aussie kept calm, broke back and brought it to a tiebreak. In shades of his previous win over Ben Shelton, Kokkinakis played a superb tiebreak to go a set up and get the Aussie camp up and about.

However Berrettini has experience on his side. He is a big game player who has had more than his fair share of injuries and bad luck. At his best, he is one of the most damaging players in the world with a huge serve and a powerful backhand. That was all on show throughout the three sets, but he stepped it up for some crucial breaks after the first set to win in two hours and 43 minutes, 6-7 6-3 7-5.

While technically still a shot and de Minaur goes to another level while donning the green and gold, he was just no match for the patient Sinner, with their gamestyles always heavily favouring the Italian. In the end, the world number one took the match comfortably 6-3 6-4, securing the semi-final tie for Italy and sending his nation into its second successive final.

“It’s nice to be part of this again, because it’s an achievement to play the final in Davis Cup,” Sinner said post-match. “Tomorrow is going to be the last official tournament day for all of us this season. “Winning would mean so much to us, not only because the win but but it means also that we defended our title.”

If the tie could be made on one point, then it came in the 11th game of the deciding set with Kokkinakis serving. The Australian ripped a whopping forehand into the corner, only for Berrettini to produce a jaw-dropping slice return to win the point. From there, Berrettini got the confidence to break, then held serve for the match.

“I think he makes that maybe one in 100 times,” Kokkinakis said of that point. While Berrettini believed he arguably should have won the first set, which seemed right given his first serve dominance and ability to create crucial break points.

“Today I think I played one of my best matches,” he said. “I should have won the first set. “Thanasi played really good. “I know that I put my heart on court today, and I played really well.”

Italy will go on to face Netherlands to decide the title, with the Italians gunning for their third title – and second successive trophy – while the Dutch eye off making history with their first. World number ones Italy will be strong favourites for the clash.