Without Sinner or Musetti, but with Berrettini and Cobolli

Italy has had a completely different path to Spain in reaching this Davis Cup final. As hosts, they did not have to play preliminary rounds, while in the quarter-finals they faced Austria and in the semi-finals Belgium. Neither of these teams has a single top 40 player in their ranks.

Filippo Volandri's team resembles David Ferrer's in terms of absences. They missed Jannik Sinner, who declined to participate weeks ago to rest, earning much criticism in his country, and Lorenzo Musetti, who was exhausted after the ATP Finals in Turin. Despite the absence of their number one and two players, Italy remains strong, with Flavio Cobolli as the leading player, Matteo Berrettini as the second, and a competent doubles team with Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

Cobolli has become a hero in Italy for his agonising victory over Zizou Bergs in a 32-point tie-break and will face Jaume Munar in the number one singles match. The only previous encounter between the two was won by Munar a few weeks ago at the Shanghai Masters 1000.

The other singles match, the first of the day, will see Berrettini against Pablo Carreño. The 2021 Wimbledon finalist has seen his career hampered by physical problems in recent seasons, but he is in pristine form in this Davis Cup. He won without dropping a set against Jurij Rodionov and Raphael Collingnon, ranked 177 and 86 respectively. The Asturian has faced Berrettini twice, with one win each, but neither was indoors and both were in 2022.

Bolelli and Vavassori, finalists in three Grand Slams as a pair, are the seventh-best duo in the rankings and will face Granollers and Pedro Martínez if the doubles are needed to decide the final.