Italy defeat Australia in Davis Cup semi-final rematch

Italy defeated Australia in the second Davis Cup semi-final on Saturday in Malaga, winning 2-0 to book their place in the final against the Netherlands on Sunday.

The fixture was a rematch of last year’s final, which Italy also won.

This time, it was Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner who propelled the defending champions to victory, with the duo beating Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex de Minaur respectively.

Berrettini and Kokkinakis took to court first in what was a tight affair, with the Italian winning in three sets.

Kokkinakis had defeated America’s Ben Shelton 16-14 in a third-set tiebreak in the quarter-finals, and again the world No.65 played excellent tennis under pressure, saving set points in the opening stanza against Berrettini.

“After I lost the first set, it wasn’t easy to digest that,” Berrettini said after the match.

“But I’m fighting for my country with this crowd, so I’m happy.”

Berrettini did not concede another break over the course of the match, winning 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-5 in two hours, 39 minutes.

Next on court was world No.1 Sinner, riding a 12-match winning streak after claiming the Shanghai Masters, ATP Finals and his opening Davis Cup tie against Sebastian Baez.

The 23-year-old continued his brilliant form, racing past de Minaur for the loss of just seven games, 6-3, 6-4.

“It means a lot,” said Sinner after he secured Italy’s return to the Davis Cup final.

“It was a tough encounter, playing Alex.

“We know each other quite well now so I have to be very careful every time.

“It’s a very tough challenge for me, so I was looking forward to this one.

“Obviously it helped a lot that Matteo won the singles today. He played amazing tennis, it was very high quality.

“Hopefully this can give us some confidence for tomorrow.

“It’s going to be a very difficult and tough day for us and also the Netherlands.”

Italy are heavy favourites across top online bookmakers to defeat the Netherlands in Sunday’s final, with Bet365 paying $1.16 for them to claim back-to-back titles.

The Netherlands, who defied tennis betting odds to defeat Spain in the quarter-finals before overcoming Germany in the last four, are $5 underdogs to win their first Davis Cup title.

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