On Sunday, November 26, the 2023 Davis Cup final took place in Malaga, Spain. The teams of Australia and Italy participated in the decisive match. The Australians defeated the Finnish team in the semifinals and it was not even necessary to play the doubles match. Two singles victories were enough: Alexey Popyrin defeated Otto Virtanen and Alex de Miñaur faced Emil Ruusuvuori.
The second semi-final, in which the Italians faced the Serbian team, was much more dramatic. First, Miomir Kecmanovic achieved a resounding victory over Lorenzo Musetti. But Italy reached the final. World number four Jannik Sinner saved three match points to defeat 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. And in the doubles match, in which Sinner and Djokovic also participated, the Italians turned out to be stronger.
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Australia is one of the teams with the most titles in the Davis Cup. Taking into account the performance of the Australasian national team at the beginning of the 20th century, the Australians had 28 titles. Only the United States has more: 32. In 2022, the Australian team reached the final, in which they lost to the Canadians. The main star of the team is De Minaur, 24 years old, twelfth racket in the world. They also have an excellent duo, Matthew Ebden/Max Purcell, who won the Wimbledon title in 2022.
And the Australian captain is two-time Grand Slam singles champion (and 2000 US Open doubles champion), former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt, by the way, won the Davis Cup twice as a player: in 1999 and 2003.
Lleyton Hewitt at the 2023 Davis Cup
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
The Italians have a captain with less status. Filippo Volandri won only two titles at the ATP level during his career and did not rise higher than 25th in the world rankings. In a historical sense, the advantage was not on Italy’s side either. The representatives of the Apennine Peninsula only had one Davis Cup title, won in 1976. In addition, they reached the final on six more occasions, where they suffered six defeats, the last of them in 1998.
But Australia does not have a star player like Italy. De Minaur still has a lot of work to do to reach the level of Sinner, the fourth racket in the world, who recently came one step away from the title in the Final Championship.
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The first match of the day featured Alexei Popyrin, who finished in the top 40 in the world rankings, and Matteo Arnaldi, the world’s number 44 racket player. In the first set, the initiative was on Arnaldi’s side. He was the first to take a break: it happened in the fourth game. Popyrin immediately scored a reverse break, breaking his opponent’s serve, but this did not help him. The Italian, leading the score in his favor at 5:4, missed a triple set point (5:5). In the eleventh game, however, Matteo himself gave Alexey a double break point, but he was saved. After which he accepted the set for 7:5.
But Popyrin played better in the second game. Of the first six games, he took five, starting with two breaks (in the first and third games) for 5-1. In the seventh game, the Russian Australian missed a double set point on the catch, but in the eighth he served for the game 6-2.
Well, he can only blame himself for the fact that Alexey lost the decisive set. He had break points in all but one of the return games, but he didn’t convert any of the eight opportunities! Arnaldi, with 5: 4 in his favor, successfully won the match: 7: 5, 2: 6, 6: 4 in 2 hours and 29 minutes. At the same time, Matteo lost to his opponent in both aces (five against 12) and double faults (nine against three).
After winning the decisive point, Arnaldi could not hold back his tears. “Very emotional moment. You have no idea what this means for me and also for the country… I won one of the most important games of my life. I don’t even know what to say,” Tennis Majors quotes Matteo.
“A month ago a very important person for me and my girlfriend died. This is for him,” she added.
Matteo Arnaldi cries with happiness after winning the 2023 Davis Cup final
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Popyrin admitted at a press conference that he had never felt so bad in his life…
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And then the heavy artillery came into play. Alex de Minaur and Jannik Sinner took to the field. The Italian, who understood that his victory would give the team the title, won the five previous matches against the Australian. In the first set, Sinner broke another’s serve in the third game. This break remained the only one, although both players subsequently had break points. De Minaru should be especially upset: in the seventh game he saved a break point, and in the eighth he lost the opportunity to tie, after his own opponent escaped a break point. And instead of 4: 4 it became 5: 3 in favor of Yannick. And in the ninth game, the Italian took the set, giving up only one move: 6:3 in 46 minutes.
In the second game, Sinner gave De Minaur no chance and gave the nod to his opponent. At the same time, the Australian did not give up a single match without a fight, but the Italian became better and better. And in the sixth game, Yannick took advantage of the third match point in the reception: 6:3, 6:0 in 1 hour and 22 minutes.
Thus Italy won the Davis Cup for the first time in 47 years and for the second time in history. Australia lost its second consecutive final. In 2022, Canada did not allow them to win the title. In this draw, the Canadians stopped in the quarterfinals, losing to Finland, which for the first time in history got into the top four.
It has also been announced today that the 2024 Davis Cup playoffs will also be played in Malaga.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS