Italy rebuilds without Sinner or Musetti: Flavio Cobolli leads the charge, Sonego called to reinforce

The Italian Davis Cup team will have to cope with another withdrawal in their quest to defend the title. It was confirmed this Friday that World No. 9 Lorenzo Musetti will also not be part of the Italian team, leaving them without either of their two best representatives.

The Europeans, champions of the Davis Cup Finals in 2023 and 2024, learned weeks ago that Jannik Sinner would not be participating on this occasion. The 4-time major champion opted to skip the tournament to secure more rest time and end his season slightly earlier.

The World No. 2 is still competing at the ATP Finals, where he will play his semi-final match this Saturday against Alex de Minaur. Should he advance, the final would be played on Sunday, while Italy is scheduled to debut in the Davis Cup Finals on November 19th—just three days after the Turin tournament concludes.

With Sinner's absence already confirmed, Musetti was called upon to lead the Italians and was initially included in the squad by captain Filippo Volandri. The 23-year-old had a demanding end to the year, fighting until the last moment to qualify for the ATP Finals, and then competing in the Round Robin phase this week.

Musetti was eliminated with one three-set victory over Alex de Minaur and straight-sets losses to Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz. Considering his campaign at the Hellenic Championship leading up to last week's final, Musetti played a total of 7 matches in the last 8 days. This is why he is following his colleague Sinner's steps and has withdrawn from the team aiming for a third title in a row in the Davis Cup, a feat only achieved by one country in the Open Era: the United States, with five titles in a row between 1968 and 1972.

Musetti's departure reconfigures Volandri's team, which called up Lorenzo Sonego as an emergency replacement. Sonego has extensive experience being part of the Italian team in Davis Cup ties. The Europeans relied on Sinner and Musetti as their highest-ranked players in the previous two years, but this time they will face the tie against Austria without their two main weapons.

The team is now comprised of Flavio Cobolli (No. 22), Lorenzo Sonego (No. 39), and Matteo Berrettini (No. 63) as singles alternatives, along with a more than experienced doubles pair of Simone Bolelli (No. 13) and Andrea Vavassori (No. 14).

Considering that Sonego was the last to join the team, it is likely that Cobolli will take the court as the first singles player and Berrettini will occupy the second singles spot. We recall that back in the 2024 Finals, Musetti's crushing loss in the quarter-finals against Francisco Cerundolo led captain Volandri to decide to bench the young player and replace him with the experienced Berrettini in the subsequent matches.

The formula worked perfectly, with Berrettini claiming key victories in the semi-finals against Kokkinakis and in the final against Botic Van de Zandschulp—while Sinner fulfilled his obligation in his respective singles duels, without needing to play the doubles rubber to secure the trophy for the second consecutive year.

The Italian team will debut this November 19th against the surprise qualifier, Austria, who secured their spot by defeating Finland and Hungary in the qualifiers. The Central Europeans have Filip Misolic (No. 85) and Jurij Rodionov (No. 161) as their singles selections, while the captain is former World No. 1 doubles player, Jürgen Melzer.