Sinner savors 'special feeling' as Italy ends drought

MALAGA, Spain — Italy's Davis Cup hero Jannik Sinner said it was a "special feeling" to end his team's 47-year drought in the competition on Sunday in Malaga.

Sinner beat Alex de Minaur in straight sets in the second singles rubber after Matteo Arnaldi scraped past Alexei Popyrin to earn his country its second trophy with a 2-0 win over Australia.

Sinner, ranked fourth, played a key role, winning all five of his rubbers, including two against world No 1 Novak Djokovic and Serbia on Saturday.

The 22-year-old said he would like to take Italy to further success in the competition if he can, but that winning it for the first time was wonderful.

"We are all very young, we are really hungry to try to win it one more time in our life, but in another way, you know, having this feeling at least once, it is a really special feeling," Sinner told reporters.

The Italian said his team triumphed because the group pushed each other on in search of their country's first Davis Cup since 1976.

Sinner arrived after losing the ATP Finals title to Djokovic on the previous Sunday.

"I played coming from Turin, I gave 100 percent, all I had," added Sinner. "I think the whole team, they pushed each other on, and this is maybe our key, why we are standing here with this trophy."

Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt was disappointed after finishing runner-up for a second consecutive year but hailed the superb Sinner.

"Jannik, he's played awesome all week, the last few weeks, to be honest, the last few months," said Hewitt.

"So he showed why he's a top three or four player in the world at the moment.

"He backed up what he did yesterday against Novak and played extremely good tennis."

De Minaur also acknowledged Sinner's superb form, which saw him win titles in Montpellier, Toronto, Beijing and Vienna this year.

"I think probably Novak said maybe a week ago, Jannik is riding this amazing wave of confidence," said the world No 12.

"He's seriously impressive (with) the level he's showing."

The Italians had lost the three finals they played against Australia, who finished runner-up to Canada last year.

Australia eliminated Finland in the last four this year. The Aussies are 28-time champions but haven't lifted the trophy at men's tennis' top team event since Hewitt was on the winning squad as a player back in 2003.

"There hasn't been another nation that's gone back-to-back in the last two years, so we are showing a pretty good effort collectively," De Minaur said.

"We are very, very close. It stinks like hell. We'll be back. We'll get this. I mean, we've got a very, very strong future ahead of us."

Matteo Berrettini was not in the Italian team because of an injury, but he was in Malaga supporting his countrymen.

Agencies