Italy and Australia set up Davis Cup semis clash

World number one Jannik Sinner triumphed in singles and doubles to help Davis Cup holders Italy beat Argentina 2-1 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals.
Italy will face Australia after they earlier defeated record 32-time winners the United States and world number four Taylor Fritz with a tense 2-1 victory.
Sinner won his first two Grand Slams this season, as well as triumphing at the ATP Finals last week without dropping a set, and blew Sebastian Baez away 6-2, 6-1 after Francisco Cerundolo comfortably beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-1 in the opening rubber.
In the decisive doubles battle, Sinner and Matteo Berrettini shaded Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez 6-4, 7-5 to progress.
“If they put me on the court in doubles I try my best,” said Sinner.
“Matteo played unbelievable today, he carried me.”
Italy booked a third consecutive return to the semi-finals and are favourites to win the Davis Cup for a second year running, in no small part because of Sinner’s presence.
The 23-year-old is still waiting for the outcome of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal against his initial exoneration for twice testing positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March.
Sinner beat Novak Djokovic in singles and doubles in last year’s semi-finals on the way to helping Italy end a 47-year wait to lift the trophy again.
Against Baez in the first set of his singles match, the Italian spurned five chances to close it out but eventually did so at the sixth time of asking.
Sinner broke in the second and fourth games of the second set, before holding on to serve out the match. The doubles teams were tied until the ninth game of the first set when Sinner won three points and then Molteni clipped his passing shot which was heading wide to hand Italy the decisive solitary break. The second set was even tighter with Italy breaking for a 6-5 lead and sealing their victory with a Sinner smash.
“It’s a different feeling when you step on court and can enjoy playing with the best player in the world,” said Berrettini.
The Netherlands take 1-0 lead against GermanyThe Netherlands, who defeated Rafael Nadal’s Spain on Tuesday, grabbed a 1-0 lead against Germany in the first semi-final on Friday when Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp powered past Germany’s Daniel Altmaier in three action-packed sets.
Van de Zandschulp, who beat Nadal is his last professional match four days ago, on Friday exhibited calm nerves to win the opening match 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 despite a staggering 16 aces from Altmaier.