Flavio Cobolli won the sixth-longest deciding set in team tennis records to beat his Belgian opponent during the semi-finals
The young Italian star and his compatriot guided Italy to Davis Cup glory as the hosts overcame Spain to capture a historic third consecutive title in front of an ecstatic home crowd
Two days following he narrowly won a marathon lengthy tie-break, the Italian talent returned to excelled as he battled back from a set and a break down to overcome Jaume Munar in three sets
The 23-year-old's gritty comeback victory triumph clinched a 2-0 triumph for his country in the Italian city after his teammate had won 6-3 6-4 against Pablo Carreno Busta
It is a fourth team championship victory overall for the Italian team, who are the initial country to achieve three consecutive titles since defending champions no longer received direct entry to the final 53 years ago
Backed passionately by the vast majority of a sell-out 10,000-strong audience, Cobolli conquered a poor beginning to spark moments of jubilation among the Italian players, staff and supporters
The champion was surrounded by his team-mates on court but paused for a brief time to commend Munar on his performance before rejoining the celebrations
Each Italy and Spain made the final despite being without key players, with the non-participation of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner denying spectators a seventh meeting of the season between the top-ranked men's players
But, with national second-ranked another key player too missing, the Italian duo owned their moments in the limelight with perfect records from three singles matches each during the tournament
The audience chanted the player's name as he kept his calm to close out his comeback victory to zero, having achieved the decisive break in the penultimate game of a nail-biting final set
That was no mean feat, given he had admitted he had realized a "dream" in delivering Italy to Sunday's showpiece on home soil
In contrast to the scenes of Friday night, when the athlete removed his jersey in jubilation on "one of the best" days of his career, the ranked player faced the price for a poor beginning as he conceded a dominant first set
But the determined player initiated a essential, immediate response after falling a behind at the beginning of the second
Cobolli's luck seemed to shift after a brief stop in the match when a spectator of the crowd became ill
When play resumed, and with his opponent down a critical moment, the player floated over a volley that hit a fortunate net cord and brought the game back on level terms
Although frustratingly denied four set points on his rival's serve, the champion seized command of a decisive tie-break to push the final set - where he once again performed
The Italian star had earlier taken his team competition individual winning streak to eleven consecutive wins with an excellent display against Carreno Busta
The former Wimbledon runner-up used his third break point for a advantage before assuredly closing the opener to love
Having taken 11 of the last 13 points to secure the opening set, the player appeared ready to tighten his hold on the match upon creating two break points in the opening game of the following set
Carreno Busta managed to survive each before producing a sequence of solid serving performances - but the Italian took his following chance and served out to love to finish his victory
Mira is a tech journalist and AI researcher with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and their societal impacts.