BOLOGNA, Italy — Flavio Coboli defeated Filippo Misolic 6-1, 6-3 on Wednesday and two-time defending champion Italy beat Austria 2-0 and advanced to the Davis Cup semifinals against Belgium.
Coboli delighted the home fans when he served out the winner after 65 minutes.
The semifinals are scheduled for Friday.
Since losing to Canada in the final group stage in 2023, Italy has won 12 consecutive Davis Cup matches.
Earlier, Italian player Matteo Berrettini defeated Yuri Rodionov 6-3, 7-6(4).
Berrettini fell behind 5-2 in the second set, but broke back in the ninth game. In the next game, he saved three set points against his 177th-ranked opponent and won the first match point in the tie-break.
The draw was a best-of-three match, so the doubles match was not played.
Top-ranked Italy is seeking its third consecutive title and fourth title in a row.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Jannik Sinner, who led Italy to titles in 2023 and 2024, chose to sit out this season’s Davis Cup final.
Austria, ranked 12th, had beaten Italy only once in six previous meetings – in the quarter-finals in Vienna in 1990, their best result in a team competition.
The Davis Cup quarter-finals in Bologna is the sixth edition of the revamped event, with the champion decided at a neutral venue.
Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, a six-time Grand Slam champion who finished runner-up to Sinner at the ATP Finals in Turin on Sunday, withdrew with a hamstring injury.
Spain will face fourth-seeded Czech Republic on Thursday, while second-seeded Germany will face Argentina in its final two quarter-finals.
