‘Brotherhood ' inspires Italy to third Davis Cup title

The vast majority of the sellout, 10,000-strong crowd chanted Cobolli's name as he kept his composure to serve out his comeback victory to love, having forced the breakthrough in the 11th game of a tense deciding set.

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Brothers Thehan and Methvan Wijemanne won the men's doubles title. (Pix by Kamal Wanniarachchi)

That was no mean feat, given the emotional and physical fatigue from his heroics in the semifinals two days earlier.

World number 22 Cobolli paid the price for a slow start as he conceded a one-sided opening set.

But he launched a necessary, immediate response after falling a break down at the start of the second, before once again delivering in a crucial tiebreak and then finding the inspiration to complete his memorable win.

"We tried to recreate the spirit of the Italy team that won the [football] World Cup in 2006," Cobolli said.

"Our brilliant fans are also part of this team. I've been repeating for three days but it's the best day of my life.”

Berrettini, who had earlier taken his Davis Cup singles winning streak to 11 matches with an excellent performance against Carreno Busta, has been there for Cobolli ever since they first met when he was 14 and Flavio eight.

When Cobolli was struggling for form earlier this season, Berrettini advised him against entering the lower-tier challenger tournaments and instead return to a training block to rediscover his form.