When Italy plays in Davis Cup final: history with Spain

The doubles success of Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez against Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz has certified Spain’s qualification for the Davis Cup final.

It will therefore be the national team captained by David Ferrer, orphaned by Carlos Alcaraz, that will face Italy, which despite being without its two best ranking players, Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti, defeated Austria in the quarters and Belgium in the semifinals.

On the concrete of the Super Tennis Arena at Bologna Fiere, Italy and Spain will face each other starting at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23. At the end of the first singles match, the second match will be played immediately, and if the two matches played are not enough to determine an overall winner, the doubles will be played, also to follow.

Italy will field, in order of world ranking, Flavio Cobolli (22), Lorenzo Sonego (39), Matteo Berrettini (56), Andrea Vavassori (341) and Simone Bolelli (outranked in singles, number 13 in doubles). Spain, which has not replaced the injured Carlos Alcaraz, can instead field four athletes-Jaume Munar (36), Pablo Carreño Busta (89), Pedro Martinez (95), and Marcel Granollers (outranked in singles, number 6 in doubles).

There are as many as 13 previous Davis Cup matches between the two national teams, but they have not faced each other in the past six years when the tournament’s new format came into effect. Italy has won seven times (1932, 1954, 1959, 1973, 1977, 1992 and 1997), while Spain has won on six occasions (1963, 1968, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2006). The two teams have never faced each other in the finals but at most in the quarterfinals in 1997, with the Azzurri winning 4-1 thanks to two victories by Omar Camporese (against Carlos Moya and Albert Costa), one by Renzo Furlan (against Costa), and one in the doubles, again with Camporese and Furlan on the court (against Francisco Roig and Javier Sanchez).