BOLOGNA, Italy — Flavio Cobolli defeated Filip Misorich 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday to offer back-to-back champions Italy a 2-0 victory over Austria and arrange a match in opposition to Belgium within the Davis Cup semifinals.
Cobolli clinched a powerful victory with a service winner after 65 minutes, a lot to the delight of the house crowd.
The semifinals are scheduled for Friday.
Italy has received 12 straight Davis Cup matches since shedding to Canada within the ultimate group stage in 2023.
Earlier, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini defeated Julie Rodionov 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Berrettini fell behind 5-2 within the second set, however got here again with a break within the ninth recreation. In his subsequent match, he fought off three set factors in opposition to his 177th-ranked opponent and transformed the primary match level within the tiebreaker to win.
In case of a tie, there was no doubles play, as it will be a best-of-three match.
Leaders Italy are aiming for his or her third consecutive victory and fourth general.
4-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to titles in 2023 and 2024, has opted to take a seat out this season’s Davis Cup ultimate.
Austria, ranked twelfth within the rankings, have solely crushed Italy as soon as of their final six conferences – their greatest lead to a workforce match was within the quarter-finals in Vienna in 1990.
The Davis Cup Remaining 8 in Bologna would be the sixth version of the revamped occasion the place the champion shall be decided on a impartial website.
Six-time Grand Slam champion and No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who was scheduled to complete runner-up to Sinner on the ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday, withdrew with a hamstring damage.
In Thursday’s remaining two quarterfinal matches, Spain will play fourth-seeded Czech Republic, and second-seeded Germany will play Argentina.
