Sawt Falasteen - Italy cruise past Austria and into Davis Cup semi-finals

Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli both claimed straight-sets victories at the Super Tennis Arena, making light of the absences of star players Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti.

Sinner and Musetti withdrew from Italy's title defence on home soil but the Azzurri were dominant even without two players ranked in the world's top 10.

Former Wimbledon finalist Berrettini, who was key to Italy retaining the Davis Cup last year, comfortably saw off Jurij Rodionov 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) in one hour and 35 minutes.

Berrettini went 5-2 down in the second set which was interrupted for half an hour due to a problem with the lighting in the arena.

But the injury-prone 29-year-old rattled off three games, saving three set points to draw level at 5-5 before going on to win the tie-break and put Italy ahead in the tie.

Cobolli, ranked 22 in the world, made short work of Filip Misolic, beating Austria's highest ranked player 6-1, 6-3 to secure Italy a spot in the last four.

Italy winning the two singles matches means Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori will not play their doubles match against Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler.

The semi-final line-up with be completed on Thursday when Argentina face Germany and Spain take on the Czech Republic without world number one Carlos Alcaraz, who withdrew with a hamstring injury on Tuesday.

H.Jarrar--SF-PST