World No. 1 Jannik Sinner delivered Italy's second decisive point in their Davis Cup semi-final against Australia on Saturday, qualifying his country for a second consecutive final, which they will play on Sunday against the Netherlands .
The boss of men's tennis dominated the Australian for the ninth time in as many confrontations Alex De Minaur (9th), beaten 6-3, 6-4 and who smashed his racket in rage as soon as the game was lost.
Earlier today, Matteo Berrettini (35th) had dominated the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis (77e) 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-5 after a 2h43 battle.
Title holders, Italy will face the Netherlands in the final on Sunday from 4:00 p.m., who defeated Germany 2-0 in the first semi-final played on Friday evening.
The transalpine selection is seeking a third Davis Cup title after those of 1976 and 2023.
The Netherlands, for their part, did not win any and had the best run in their history in Malaga, in a competition in which they had never progressed beyond the semi-finals until then.
Saturday afternoon, Jannik Sinner and breaké From Minaur from his first service game to lead 2-0. The Australian was not discouraged and managed to get back to 2-2, before losing his throw again at 3-2, enough to ensure the Italian won the set (6-3).
A break at 4-4 was enough for the recent winner of the Masters to win the second set 6-4.
Just before the victorious match of Anger, Kokkinakis et Berrettini, who had never faced each other, had fought an extremely close duel.
The two players went blow for blow until 5-5 in the third set. The Australian cracked first, enough to allow Berrettini to race to victory (7-5).
“I put my heart on the court today (Saturday), I think I played very well,” was satisfied Berrettini. “It was very difficult to digest the missed chances in the first set, (but) I kept fighting,” he said at a press conference.
