Jannik Sinner leads Italy back to the Davis Cup semifinals and a rematch against Australia

MALAGA, Spain (AP) — No. 1-ranked Jannik Sinner won matches in singles and doubles to lead defending champion Italy to a 2-1 comeback victory over Argentina on Thursday, earning a return trip to the Davis Cup semifinals.

“I’m here trying to do the best I can in the singles,” Sinner said. “If they put me on the court in doubles, I’ll also try my best.”

On Saturday, Italy will face Australia in a rematch of last year’s final, but this time it will only be for a chance to play for the championship. Australia eliminated the U.S. 2-1 earlier Thursday to reach the final four at the team competition for the third consecutive year.

The other semifinal, to be contested Friday, is the Netherlands against Germany. The Dutch got past Rafael Nadal and Spain in the quarterfinals earlier in the week, sending the 22-time Grand Slam champion into retirement.

Italy fell behind 1-0 in the quarterfinals when Argentina’s Francisco Cerúndolo defeated Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-1 on an indoor hard court at the Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martina Carpena in southern Spain.

But then in stepped Sinner, whose season already includes two Grand Slam trophies — at the Australian Open and U.S. Open — plus the title at the ATP Finals last weekend in Turin, Italy. First he overwhelmed Sebastián Báez 6-2, 6-1. Then Sinner teamed with 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini in the deciding doubles match to win 6-4, 7-5 against Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez.

“He carried me today,” Sinner said about Berrettini.

After arriving late to Malaga from Turin, Sinner did not get a chance to practice on the Davis Cup competition court before taking on Báez and stretching his streak to 22 sets won in a row.

“In three minutes, he was perfectly comfortable on court,” Italy captain Filippo Volandri said. “He’s a special one.”

Volandri swapped out his original doubles team, Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, for Sinner and Berrettini, and the change paid dividends.

Australia, the Davis Cup runner-up the last two years, advanced when Matt Ebden and Jordan Thompson beat the surprise, last-minute American pairing of Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-4 in that quarterfinal’s deciding doubles match.

The Shelton-Paul substitution for Paris Olympics silver medalists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram was announced about 15 minutes before the doubles match began. Ebden and John Peers beat Krajicek and Ram in the Summer Games final in August.

The Australians broke once in each set of the doubles. In the second, they stole one of Shelton’s service games on the fourth break opportunity when Ebden’s overhead smash made it 5-4. Thompson then served out the victory, closing it with a service winner before chest-bumping Ebden.

The 21st-ranked Shelton made his Davis Cup debut earlier Thursday in singles against 77th-ranked Thanasi Kokkinakis, who emerged from a tight-as-can-be tiebreaker by saving four match points and eventually converting his seventh to win 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (14).

No. 4 Taylor Fritz, the U.S. Open runner-up, then pulled the Americans even with a far more straightforward victory over No. 9 Alex de Minaur, 6-3, 6-4.

When their match finally ended, on a backhand by Shelton that landed long, Kokkinakis dropped onto his back and pounded his chest. After he rose, he threw a ball into the stands, then walked over to Australia’s sideline, spiked his racket and yelled, before hugging captain Lleyton Hewitt.

“I don’t know if I’ve been that pumped up in my life. I wanted that for my team,” said Kokkinakis, who won the 2022 Australian Open men’s doubles title with Nick Kyrgios. “It could have gone either way, but I kept my nerve.”

___

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press