Flavio Cobolli’s shirt-shredding performance helped Italy to its third straight Davis Cup, and gave it another tennis hero

The history books will record that Italy beat Spain 2-0 in the 2025 Davis Cup Final. Tennis fanatics of the future will likely take a look at that result and assume the tie was decided in another epic showdown between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. That’s how most other big events ended this season, so why not this one, which involved both of their native nations?

Those history nerds might be crestfallen when they find out neither Sinner nor Alcaraz made the trip to Bologna, and that the Davis Cup ended with a match between 22nd-ranked Flavio Cobolli and 36th-ranked Jaume Munar. Let’s hope they go back and check whatever video remains of today’s contest, because even Sinner and Alcaraz would have been hard-pressed to match the heart, effort, drama, and skill that Cobolli and Munar gave us over three standout sets.

Would you expect anything less from Davis Cup? Every year, this competition reaches down among the sport’s rank-and-file and picks out a new and lesser-known hero, someone who harnesses the energy from his teammates and fans and countrymen back home to find a level of play he has never found on his own.

Coming into Sunday’s finale, there were a few players vying for that honor.

For Spain, Jaume Munar and Pablo Carreño Busta had each won a clutch singles point in the quarterfinals and semifinals, while the team’s doubles pair, Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez, had clinched both ties in clutch fashion.

For Italy, Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini had won both of their singles matches, but it was Cobolli who brought the shirt-ripping theatrics to the packed arena. His tie-sealing semifinal win over Zizou Bergs was one of the matches of the year. In a 32-point deciding tiebreaker of unrelenting intensity, Cobolli saved seven match points, while Bergs saved six, before finally, tearfully capitulating.

The crowd in Bologna was primed for more of the same on Sunday. This tie had what many recent Davis Cup finals have been missing: The traditional home-and-away atmosphere that was so central to its appeal for more than a century. Italy has made itself into the leading tennis nation of the 2020s, and they were looking to become the first team to three-peat since the U.S. won five straight Cups from 1968 to 1972. The stadium broke into a sustained roar when the teams were introduced. The crowd was looking for more of they had seen in the semis—victories and theatrics—and they got it.

Again it was Berrettini who started the proceedings with an efficient straight-set win, this time over Carreño Busta. This was Berrettini’s 11th straight Cup victory, and he didn’t drop a set this week. While he has usually been a No. 2—behind Sinner and now Cobolli—Berrettini has established himself as a vintage Cup stalwart, a guy who, when he laces them up for his country, shrugs off whatever doubts or injuries he may have and plays the kind of brutal, first-strike tennis that his game has always promised but so rarely delivered.

Again, it was left to Cobolli to provide the day’s operatic moments. Again, he took the long route to get there.

It’s impossible to describe this feeling. I dreamed a lot for this night. ... I found something in my body, in my heart. I gave everything for this team. Flavio Cobolli

It was Cobolli’s opponent, Munar, who rose to the moment early. This Spanish grinder surprised the Italian by attacking second serves and taking his backhand down the line with force. He broke serve by making one of the defensive lobs of the year, while facing away from the court, and following it with a forehand winner. He won the first set 6-1, and broke to start the second. A deciding doubles rubber was looking more probable with every point.

Commenting from the sideline, former player Barry Cowan called Munar’s level “Top 10 tennis.” Then he wondered how long someone ranked 36th could maintain stay in that stratosphere. He was right to wonder.

Serving at 1-0, Munar smacked another strong backhand and reached game point. Then, suddenly, seemingly from out of nowhere, he blinked: He threw in a double fault to make it deuce. It was a tiny opening, but it was all Cobolli needed. He won the next point with his best pass of the day, and after a break in play due to a fan illness, he broke serve with a volley that clipped the tape and dropped over for a fortunate winner. A bit of luck, and a bit of tightness from his opponent, and Cobolli was on his way.

“I was a little bit nervous, I was shaking a little but with my hit,” Cobolli said of his slow start. “Jaume played so good.”

Jaume kept playing so good, as the two traded blows over the final two hard-fought sets. Cobolli gradually took charge with his best shots, his inside-out forehand and his smash. By the end of the day, I wondered if anyone in the game hits either of those shots better than he does. The match peaked in the second-set tiebreaker, when they put each other through a series of lung-busting, full-power rallies, all of which Cobolli won.

But it wasn’t until the 11th game of the third that Munar finally cracked under the assault. Cobolli broke at 5-5 with another big inside-out forehand, and then held at love with a crosscourt version of the same shot to clinch. Italy, and Davis Cup, had its hero.

“It’s impossible to describe this feeling. I dreamed a lot for this night. I played an amazing match,” the 23-year-old said. “At the end I looked a little bit at my bench, I found something in my body, in my heart. I gave everything for this team.

“We cannot lose for our country. Sometimes you learn, but you can never lose if you give it all, what you have in your heart.”

The only thing missing from Colbolli’s Sunday performance was the shirt-shredding. Give him credit, though: He reached up and started to tear away after the final point, but his team got to him too quickly and put him a group bear hug. He should have plenty of time to finish the job in the off-season ahead.