Flavio rewrites the blue record, beating the previous one that belonged to Lorenzi. And in the history of the competition only on five occasions have more points been played than the Italian’s 17-15 against Bergs
With thirty-two points played, the incredible tie-break won 17-15 by Flavio Cobolli against Zizou Bergs was the sixth longest in the history of the Davis Cup. The Azzurri gave Italy their third final in a row with a sumptuous performance and one of the Azzurri’s most exciting matches in this competition. The longest Davis Cup tie break of all time is the one played in 2019 in the double between Germany and Argentina, 38 points between Krawietz/Mies and Gonzalez/Mayer, with the Germans winning 20 to 18. It goes without saying that the one played between Cobolli and Bergs is the longest in the history of Italy in the Davis Cup, even among the heaviest.
precedents
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The previous record belonged to Paolo Lorenzi who in Pesaro, in March 2016, played and won the tie-break of the first set of the match against Marco Chiudinelli by 16 points to 14, in Italy’s 5-0 success against Switzerland in the first round of the then World Group. In the long history of the Azzurri in the Davis Cup there have been other very heavy and victorious tie-breaks, such as that of Italy-South Africa in 1996, when Renzo Furlan beat Wayne Ferreira in four sets, winning the tie-break of the second set. Or the even more difficult one in 1999, when Davide Sanguinettì beat Todd Martin in the semi-final in the United States, opening the doors for the final which was then lost in Milan against Sweden. In that case Sanguinetti won not just one but two tie-breaks: 7-6(0) 6-3 7-6(8) the score for the Italian against the American.