Australia's Davis Cup campaign ends at the semi final stage

Australia’s Davis Cup campaign in Malaga has ended once again by Italy. Thanasi Kokkinakis and Alex De Minaur both lost out in their singles tie which sees Italy progress to the final for the second year in a row.

Kokkanakis would take World number 35 in Matteo Berrettini all the way to three sets but would fall short losing 6⁶-7 6-3 7-5. De Minaur was defeated in straight sets by World Number one in Jannik Sinner 6-3 6-4 as the World number nine still deals with the effects of his hip injury that he sustained in Wimbledon.

Australia would have an unchanged line-up from their quarter-final win against the USA while Italy would change out the World number 17 Lorenzo Musetti for former Wimbledon finalist and World number 35 in Matteo Berrettini for the first rubber.

Kokkinakis would once again be selected for the first rubber after repaying the faith shown by captain Lleyton Hewitt in his victory over Ben Shelton in the quarter final to warrant selection again and Berrettini came into the first tie.

Coming into the rubber, both were undefeated across their Davis Cup campaigns for the year with neither having played each other before at the pro level making it a very interesting matchup.

Both players got off to a good start managing to close out their opening serving games in a quick and dominant manner, but Berrettini quickly began to develop the upper hand with his dominant forehands creating issue for the World number 77.

And with the Australian struggling on his first serve only managing to land 55% of them in the opening set which created four double faults and only won 40% of his first serve points would put him on the backfoot for most of the first set.

Despite the issues with his first serve, Kokkinakis would find multiple ways to defend from Berrettini and hold serve keeping the set alive. This included in the seventh game when Berrettini had three break points. But Kokkinakis miraculously found a way to reel five points in a row to win the game to keep his lead in the set.

With the set poised at 5-5, Berrettini finally secured the break that he had been searching for with the added bonus of being able to serve it out. But Kokkinakis would respond with a break of his own on Berrettini to send the first set into a tiebreak which the Australian would close out 8-6.

After losing the set, Berrettini would make sure to bounce back and claim the second set through his conversion of a break point at 4-3 to win 6-3 in dominant fashion only having the one unforced error in the set and only 25% of his first serves returned by Kokkinakis would send the match to the deciding third set.

And Berrettini would continue his form from the second to keep Kokkinakis under pressure as he tried to claim a break of serve.

The Italian would have his first chance to break in the first game having two break points and was 30-love up in the ninth game with the game tied at 4-4. But the third time was the charm, breaking the serve of Kokkinakis like he did in the first set at 5-5 but this time would serve out the match and win a 2 hour and 43-minute thriller to give Italy a 1-0 lead.

With Australia down in tie, the attention turned to Australia’s number 1 in Alex De Minaur to try and send the tie to the deciding the doubles match.

Alex de Minaur coming into the match did not have form on his side as he took on the World Number 1 in Jannik Sinner. In his eight matches against Jannik Sinner, the Italian has won all eight with seven of those been in straight sets which included last week’s 6-3 6-4 defeat in the ATP Finals.

And having his opening serve game broken by Sinner made it look likely of a ninth defeat. However, the Demon would bounce back immediately, breaking Sinner’s serve to cancel out the service break from the previous game to go 2-2.

Although by the seventh game, Sinner had once again broken de Minaur’s serve and from this would win the set 6-3.

The second set proved to be a more even affair between the two but in the end, Sinner would deliver the same result to De Minaur as he did at the ATP Finals, with the World No.1 winning 6-4 in the second set to secure a 2-0 win over Australia and their place in the final.

This now means that Italy for the first time since 1980 that they have made back-to-back finals appearances at the Davis Cup. And they will try to be the first team to win back-to-back Davis Cup trophies since the Czech Republic back in 2012 and 2013.

Italy will now play the Netherlands in the Davis Cup. While Italy has made the last two Davis Cup finals/Australia have made the last three finals, this will be the first time that the Netherlands have made the Davis Cup final in their 104-year history. The final will be played on Monday at 2am AEDT time.