And three, for the third time in a row the Italian tennis team is playing, for the second time at home in Bologna, the Davis Cup final. And despite those who try to stir things up, they go with the distant support of Jannik Sinner and Matteo Musetti, but above all he goes there on Matteo Berrettini’s rackets, the veteran who was dying to prove that he was still there to compete with the best despite his many injuries. And of Flavio Cobolli who as number 22 in the world, if there had been those others there, would have been first reserve.
Filippo Volandri was right to bet on Berrettini’s experience by deploying him as a singles player without being fooled by the number 56 in the rankings, which of the Roman champion speaks of the fatigue of a statuesque but fragile physique, but does not reflect all the experience gained by the first Italian in history in the final at Wimbledon, capable of rising to number 6 and playing without shaking the serve and forehand, which are the things that count. When you have to cope under pressure, that experience counts and Volandri understood it.
Italy, after the 2-0 in the quarterfinals, overcomes Belgium in the semi-final 2-0 with a moving Cobolli who plays for the fourth point with an epic match against Bergs, which ended 17-16 at the tie break of the third set with an incalculable number of match points on each side and after three hours of battle he finally won one of the most exciting matches in the history of the blue Davis (with a final dedication to his mother, brother and footballer friend Edoardo Bovefeatured in the stands several times, who is currently unable to play following an illness he suffered on the pitch last season). While Captain Volandri on the bench is consumed with tension like a candle. In a football stadium bedlam.
Tomorrow is another day, the one in which we will know whether Sunday’s opponent will be Zverev’s Germany, the highest ranking player on the pitch in this final eight, or Spain without Alcaraz.
The experience of this fight will be good for everyone: it will give building blocks of awareness to those like Berrettini who do not want and must not give up and to those like Cobolli who still have to grow with many margins and who from tonight know things about themselves that they did not know yesterday.
It can be difficult for them in this period to experience moments like this, to escape from the cone of shadow that sometimes obscures them due to the spotlight eternally shining on Sinner: welcome the “specialization” that we can afford, a luxury never seen before, which increases the overall wealth of experience. Today’s splendid day demonstrates that in Italian tennis at the moment not only does there not exist too much or vain, but there is room for everyone. Let’s enjoy these amazing guys. Instead of trying to divide them.
