Italy wins the second Davis Cup in its history, carried by a dazzling Jannik Sinner

The Italians, who had not been crowned since 1976, defeated Australia in the final on Sunday in Malaga.

47 years after its only victory, Italy won a second Davis Cup. La Nazionale won the title by easily beating Australia in the final (2-0), Sunday November 26 in Malaga (Spain). The Italians were led by Jannik Sinner in breathtaking form, concluding the confrontation by brilliantly winning his single against Alex de Minaur (6-3, 6-0) in 1h21.

The day before, the 4th player in the world had defeated Novak Djokovic face-to-face (6-2, 2-6, 7-5) then in doubles, during a semi-final against Serbia that looked like a final before the ‘hour. Sunday, Sinner did not really have to force his talent to extinguish his opponent, conceding only three games. The gap in level between the two men was such that it was difficult to imagine that De Minaur occupied 12th place in the world, only eight places behind Sinner.

Unhappy finalist of the Masters, where only Djokovic beat him in the final (the Italian had won the first group confrontation), Sinner had measured his emerging popularity in the Boot during this tournament, played in Turin. Its final, played in front of more than 6 million viewers, was a historic audience record for a tennis match in Italy.

A bright future for Italy

A few minutes before his express victory, Matteo Arnaldi had put the Italians on the right track against Alexei Popyrin, in a much closer match (7-5, 2-6, 6-4). Even when undermined in a second round clearly dominated by the Australian, Arnaldi pulled himself together to win. The 44th player in the world embodies, at 22 years old (like Sinner), this new generation of Italian tennis.

To a lesser extent, Arnaldi also had a prolific 2023, for example beating a top 10 player for the first time, Casper Ruud, in Madrid. Not selected for this final, Lorenzo Musetti (21 years old and 27th in the world) is also part of this line, supervised by Lorenzo Sonego (28 years old and 47th), who did not need to play his doubles. The Italians did not even need to rely on Matteo Berrettini, Wimbledon finalist in 2021 and former world number 6.

For Italy as for Jannik Sinner, a milestone has been reached. For the Nazionale, the last Davis Cup title dates back to 1976 and the last final to 1998, that is… three years before the birth of Sinner and Arnaldi.