Tennis, Davis Cup, Italy already qualified challenges Holland and Sinner is cheering

Last day of the Davis Cup group stage for Italy, who will be on the court today against the Netherlands having already qualified for the Final 8 in Malaga. In Andalusia, Filippo Volandri’s team will defend the title they won last year. Yesterday’s victory by Brazil over Belgium (2-1 thanks to the success of singles players Joao Fonseca and Thiago Monteiro) has paved the way for Italy to reach the final at the end of November. Today, therefore, Matteo Berrettini and his teammates, under the watchful eye of Jannik Sinner, who arrived in Bologna last night to support the team, will take to the court without the pressure of having to win at all costs, even if they certainly don’t want to make a bad impression in front of the home crowd, who flocked to Bologna to cheer on the Azzurri (the Unipol Arena is sold out for the event). On the other hand, the Dutch will do everything they can to win today’s tie and will have to produce an excellent performance if they want to land in Spain among the eight finalists. Italy and Holland met in last year’s quarterfinals: on that occasion the Azzurri will prevail by winning the decisive doubles. Captain Volandri will only make today’s singles players official later, but, given Berrettini’s choice for the first match and considering Matteo Arnaldi’s conditions are not yet 100%, Flavio Cobolli could take to the field against the orange number one, Tallon Griekspoor, who would therefore have a chance to redeem himself after the bitter defeat in his debut Davis Cup match on Friday against Zizou Bergs. Jannik Sinner arrived in Bologna last night to be with his teammates: they all had dinner together and the world number one stayed with them in a hotel. This morning he should also accompany them in their training session.