MALAGA, Spain — Jannik Sinner clinched Italy’s second consecutive Davis Cup title and capped his breakthrough season on the prime of tennis by beating Tallon Griekspoor 7-6 (2), 6-2 on Sunday for a 2-0 win over the Netherlands within the remaining of the workforce competitors.
Matteo Berrettini put Italy forward with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Botic van de Zandschulp within the opening singles match on an indoor laborious courtroom on the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena in southern Spain.
The Italians, backed by a loud contingent of singing followers enjoying drums and armed with megaphones within the crowd of 9,200, turned the primary nation to win the Davis Cup twice in a row because the Czech Republic in 2012 and 2013.
Italy’s girls received the Billie Jean King Cup by defeating Slovakia on Wednesday.
A lot of the credit score for Italy’s Davis Cup success goes to the No. 1-ranked Sinner, who went 4-0 in Malaga, together with a victory in doubles with Berrettini towards Argentina within the quarterfinals.
Sinner hit 15 aces towards Griekspoor and stretched his unbeaten streak in tour-level singles competitors to 14 matches and 26 units, together with a title on the ATP Finals every week in the past.
His ascension is among the 12 months’s largest tales in tennis. Sinner went 73-8 with eight singles titles in 2024, along with his first two Grand Slam trophies arriving on the Australian Open in January and the U.S. Open in September. The latter got here shortly after he was cleared of wrongdoing in a doping case related to 2 optimistic assessments for steroids in March; the World Anti-Doping Company’s attraction of that ruling continues to be pending.
The Netherlands, which eradicated Rafael Nadal and Spain within the quarterfinals, reached the Davis Cup remaining for the primary time.
As soon as ranked as excessive as No. 21, and at present No. 40, Griekspoor by no means has been previous the third spherical at a serious event. However he’s geared up with a harmful serve — to the tune of 25 aces in a semifinal victory towards Germany on Friday — that helped him maintain his personal deep into the primary set Sunday.
Griekspoor, who started the day 0-5 towards Sinner, truly earned the primary break probabilities, holding two at one-all after three straight groundstroke misses by the Italian. However Sinner took the following 4 factors to carry. Once they bought to the tiebreaker — which was preceded by dueling chants of “Italia! Italia!” and “Let’s go, Tallon! Let’s go!” — it was Sinner who was steadier, extra prepared for the second, and he constructed a considerable lead earlier than closing with an ace.
Sinner went up a break at 2-1 within the second, earlier than Griekspoor made one final stand. He broke proper again, then led 30-love on his serve within the following sport, drawing roars from the orange-wearing Dutch followers. However Sinner remained steadfast, and broke for 3-2 when Griekspoor double-faulted, then walked to the sideline and cracked his racket towards the Dutch bench.
Sinner would not drop one other sport the remainder of the way in which.
Earlier, 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Berrettini wanted a while to search out his groove towards the Eightieth-ranked van de Zandschulp, the person who beat Nadal within the final match of the 22-time Grand Slam title winner’s profession and upset four-time main champion Carlos Alcaraz on the U.S. Open.
However Berrettini took management by grabbing the opening set’s final three video games, and Sinner left his front-row seat behind Italy’s bench to move to the locker room and put together to shut the deal.
