Australia’s quest to end a two-decade Davis Cup drought will carry on for another year, downed by Italy in the final in Malaga.
In their second successive Davis Cup final, Alexei Popyrin and Alex de Minaur lost their singles rubbers to give the Italians a 2-0 victory – their first Davis Cup success since 1976.
Popyrin was first to play when he took on Matteo Arnaldi, but lost in three sets 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.
De Minaur then had the unenviable task of taking on a red hot Jannik Sinner, fresh off his second defeat of Novak Djokovic in as many weeks in the semi-final on Saturday morning (AEDT), and went down in two 6-3, 6-0.
The Italians had lost the last three finals it played against Australia, which was last year’s runner-up to Canada.
MORE TO COME
