Flavio Cobolli's decisive win over Jaume Munar at Davis Cup Finals draws biggest audience in Italy outside of Jannik Sinner matches

Jannik Sinner who? Flavio Cobolli emerged as the big star of this past weekend as he anchored Italian hearts and viewing figures en route to his Davis Cup triumph over Spain in the final in Bologna.

But for those watching on at home, it was a captivating event and one that saw people tune in in their droves as it was the biggest audience share outside of a Jannik Sinner match ever of over six million viewers on Rai1 and SuperTennis.

As per Gazzetta dello Sport, the match between Matteo Berrettini and Pablo Carreno Busta recorded an audience of 3.6million viewers (28%) share which included the federation channel SuperTennis which holds full TV rights for the tournament.

The comeback by Cobolli against Munar turned into a real event with an average of 5.1 million viewers across the two channels according to StudioFrasi who do audits of the data of TV channels. One in three Italians watched the match in what is pretty staggering given that neither Jannik Sinner or Lorenzo Musetti seen as the two leading lights of Italian tennis were there.

The last set between 19:15 and 20:01 also drew an average of 6.2million viewers and no less than 9.6 million contacts which is people who tune in even for a few minutes and nothing more. The celebrations were such an event that they delayed the evening news.

The previous most watched non-Sinner match in Italy was the Wimbledon 2021 final between Djokovic and Berrettini (4.7 million viewers) in all. It is also only a shade under Sinner and Alcaraz who produced the most watched tennis broadcast in Italian television history just recently.

Over 6.7 million viewers watched on linear TV alone with a combined number on linear and digital of over 7.008 million which is the new best. It shows the hunger for tennis in Italy but also what Sinner and Musetti could bring to the table if they would've played.

Cobolli and also Berrettini returning to his best will be the hope now in Italy and it will see a real explosion also led by Jasmine Paolini and co in the women's game.