BOLOGNA, Italy — Flavio Cobolli beat Filip Misolic 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday to clinch a 2-0 victory for two-time defending champion Italy over Austria and arrange a Davis Cup semifinal in opposition to Belgium.
Cobolli sealed his dominant victory with a service winner after 65 minutes to thrill the house crowd.
The semifinal is scheduled for Friday.
Italy has gained 12 straight Davis Cup ties since its final loss — to Canada within the finals group stage in 2023.
Earlier, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini beat Jurij Rodionov 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Berrettini was 5-2 down within the second set earlier than coming again with a break in ninth sport. He saved three set factors in opposition to his 177th-ranked opponent within the following sport and prevailed within the tiebreaker by changing his first match level.
Ties are performed as a best-of-three matches, so the doubles was not performed.
High-ranked Italy is looking for the third straight title and fourth general.
4-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to titles in 2023 and 2024, opted to sit down out the Davis Cup last this season.
Austria, ranked No. 12, has solely overwhelmed Italy as soon as of their earlier six encounters — within the 1990 quarterfinals in Vienna, its greatest outcome within the group competitors.
The Davis Cup Last 8 in Bologna is the sixth version of the revamped occasion that has the champion determined at a impartial web site.
No. 1-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, the six-time Grand Slam champion who’s coming off a runner-up end to Sinner on the ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday, withdrew with a hamstring harm.
Spain will tackle the No. 4-seeded Czech Republic, and No. 2 Germany will play Argentina within the final two quarterfinals on Thursday.
