Davis Cup Finals | Fantastic Flavio Cobolli fires Italy into final after epic Zizou Bergs tie-break

No Jannik Sinner, no Lorenzo Musetti but a fearless spirit as Flavio Cobolli has fired his Italy side into the final of the Davis Cup Finals on home turf in Bologna after a tennis thriller against Zizou Bergs on Friday night.

Cobolli won through a nervy tie-break which went all the way to 17-15 with the second set also going the distance which saw Bergs pull it back and he had match points to send it into a deciding doubles which will now not happen.

It is a third straight championship match for Italy who ironically could face Spain in the final who take on Germany tomorrow without either of their leading powers. Sinner decided not to play some time ago owing to the fact that the schedule meant he had to make unfortunate decisions and one of those being not playing in the Davis Cup Finals.

This drew the ire of many top figures in Italian tennis who took the patriotic view of the situation and the same could be said for Lorenzo Musetti who withdrew even later. He reached the Athens final and did this to qualify for the ATP Finals but despite losing his bid, Novak Djokovic as perhaps was expected didn't play anyway.

So he still got in but playing three tournaments and with his child on the way with his partner, he decided to skip it. This gave Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli, two of the next cabs off the rank and in Berrettini's case, the top player in Italy before Sinner and Musetti the chance to be heroes.

They have been just that this week and after Berrettini did his part earlier on in an electrifying tie with Raphael Collignon where he won 6-3, 6-4. It was time for Flavio Cobolli.

He was ahead early surging into a 3-1 lead and then consolidated the break. In the end it was pretty simple apart from the set points in which he had five of them before finally converting for 6-3.

But the second set was not about Cobolli. In fact it was about not giving an inch as the Italian and Belgian pairing duked it out in a fascinating game of Cat and Mouse as no-one got broken throughout the whole set and it was very much back and forth service holds between them with very little lost on serve by either. 40-0 games throughout.

In fact the tie-break was similar with three breaks in all, one cancelled out the other and it was a decisive one for Bergs that sent it all the way. But this is where chaos ensued as Cobolli had match point at 5-4 and couldn't get it.

It went all the way and it was 17-15. Bergs held match points at 6-4, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 9-10, 14-13, 14-15 before he finally lost at 16-15 with Cobolli claiming it 17-15. So Bergs will be thinking it's a missed chance but for Cobolli he rose to it in a tense thriller.