Italy cruise past Austria and into semis

Italy will face Belgium in the semifinals of the Davis Cup after winning both of Wednesday’s singles matches against Austria in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Bologna.

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Italy's Flavio Cobolli celebrates winning his match against Austria's Filip Misolic with team captain Filippo Volandri.

(REUTERS)

Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli claimed straight-sets victories, making light of the absences of star players Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti.

Sinner and Musetti withdrew from Italy's title defence on home soil but the Azzurri were dominant even without two players ranked in the world’s top 10.

Former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini, who was key to Italy retaining the Davis Cup last year, comfortably saw off Jurij Rodionov 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in one hour and 35 minutes.

Berrettini went 5-2 down in the second set which was interrupted for half an hour due to a problem with the lighting in the arena.

But the injury-prone 29-year-old rattled off three games, saving three set points to draw level at 5-5 before going on to win the tiebreak and put Italy ahead in the tie.