Italy Davis Cup Team

Italy are the reigning champions, claiming the Davis Cup in 2023. They are two-time champions overall, also winning in 1976, and finishing as runners-up six times (1960, 1961, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1998). Nicola Pietrangeli is one of Italy's most decorated players, featuring in all major records for the team. He holds the record for most Davis Cup ties, most overall wins, most singles wins, most doubles wins (both individually and as part of a team), and most years played.

Italy
Captain	Filippo Volandri
ITF ranking	7 (20 September 2022)
First year	1922
Years played	84
Ties played (W–L)	242 (159–83)
Years in World Group	24 (19–23)
Davis Cup titles	2 (1976, 2023)
Runners-up	6 (1960, 1961, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1998)
Most total wins	Nicola Pietrangeli (120–44)
Most singles wins	Nicola Pietrangeli (78–32)
Most doubles wins	Nicola Pietrangeli (42–12)
Best doubles team	Orlando Sirola , Nicola Pietrangeli (34–8)
Most ties played	Nicola Pietrangeli (66)
Most years played	Nicola Pietrangeli (18)

Early years pre-World War II

Italy competed in its first Davis Cup in the 1922 International Lawn Tennis Challenge. Prior to World War II, Italy generally made it to the quarterfinals of the European Zone and featured in the Inter-zonal final twice – once in 1928 and once in 1930. The Inter-zonal final was the final match of competition before the Challenge Round match, where the winner would earn the right to challenge the defending champion. On both occasions, Italy lost to the United States by a scoreline of 4–1. Uberto De Morpurgo was the Davis Cup captain for both matches and was the only player to register a win in his two single rubbers.

Post World War II – 1962

Two years after the resumption of the tournament which was put on hold due to World War II, Italy made its first reappearance in 1948. Italy was very strong over this period, appearing in four Inter-zonal finals in 1949, 1952, 1955 and 1958 before finally securing its maiden Challenge Round tie in 1960. Unfortunately, Italy were unable to overcome a strong Australian team featuring Rod Laver and Neale Fraser, losing 4–1 at White City in Sydney. Italian legend, Nicola Pietrangeli managed to win Italy's only point when he defeated Fraser in a dead-rubber match on the final day. The following year, Italy were again able to reach the Challenge Round Final after defeating the United States 4–1 in the Final in Rome. Pietrangeli won both his singles matches and his doubles match. However, Italy would again fall at the final hurdle. On this occasion, Italy lost 5–0 to Australia at Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne. The Australian side would again feature Laver (in singles and doubles) and Fraser (in doubles only), and were joined by Roy Emerson who played two singles matches. The Italian side once again featured Pietrangeli and also Orlando Sirola across all five matches. In 1962, Italy lost in the European Final to Sweden 1–4.

Limited success to first Davis Cup title

Following a somewhat lean period from 1963 to 1972, which included only one European Final in 1968, Italy returned to form in the competition with mixed success. In 1973 they made a European Final before going one step further the following year, losing 4–1 to South Africa in 1974 in the Inter-zonal Semifinals. Two years later, Italy claimed its maiden Davis Cup title when they defeated Chile 4–1 at Estadio Nacional in Santiago. Italy took an early lead on Day 1, after Corrado Barazzutti and Adriano Panatta both won their singles matches. Then Italy took an unassailable 3–0 lead the following day, when Panatta teamed up with Paolo Bertolucci in the doubles, and after finding themselves one-set-to-love down, won the next three sets to win the rubber in four sets. Over the next four years, Italy would reach the Davis Cup final three times, losing all three ties.

World Group era (1981–2000)

Since the World Group format begun in 1981, Italy were able to maintain their top 16 status for twenty years. Italy finished as quarterfinalists or better in twelve of those twenty years, including two semifinal loses and one final loss. In the 2000 Davis Cup, Italy lost 4–1 away to Spain setting them up for World Group Playoff clash against Belgium. Playing at home in Rome, Italy lost the tie 4–1, meaning they would be relegated for the first time in the World Group era.

Relegation and return to World Group

After Italy's World Group playoff loss, they were relegated to Europe/Africa Zone Group I for the 2001 edition of the tournament. Italy would not return to the World Group until they defeated Chile 4–1 away in the 2011 Davis Cup World Group play-offs. Between 2013 and 2018, Italy were defeated in the Quarterfinals on four occasions and once in the Semifinals. Since the restructuring of the competition in 2019, Italy has made it into the Semifinals in 2022 and in 2023.

Overall performance

Italy has played no less than 15 semifinals. Italy has recorded eight defeats and seven wins. Of those eight losses, Italy has suffered four whitewash defeats – losing 5–0 to Australia in 1949 and 1955 and the United States in 1952 and 1958. Of the seven semifinals won, the greatest margin was a 4–1 victory, achieved on four occasions. These wins occurred in 1961 and 1998 against the United States, in 1977 against France and in 1979 against Czechoslovakia.

Here is the list of all match-ups since 1981, when the competition started being held in the current World Group format.

2010s

Year	Competition	Date	Location	Opponent	Score	Result
2010	Europe/Africa Zone Group I, 1st Round	5–7 March	Castellaneta (ITA)	Belarus	5–0	Win
	Europe/Africa Zone Group I, 2nd Round	7–9 May	Zoetermeer (NED)	Netherlands	4–1	Win
	World Group play-offs	17–19 September	Lidköping (SWE)	Sweden	2–3	Loss
2011	Europe/Africa Zone Group I, 2nd Round	8–10 July	Arzachena (ITA)	Slovenia	5–0	Win
	World Group play-offs	16–18 September	Santiago (CHI)	Chile	4–1	Win
2012	World Group, 1st Round	10–12 February	Ostrava (CZE)	Czech Republic	4–1	Loss
	World Group play-offs	14–16 September	Napoli (ITA)	Chile	4–1	Win
2013	World Group, 1st Round	1–3 February	Turin (ITA)	Croatia	5–0	Win
	World Group, quarterfinals	5–7 April	Vancouver (CAN)	Canada	3–2	Loss
2014	World Group, 1st Round	31 January – 2 February	Mar del Plata (ARG)	Argentina	3–1	Win
	World Group, quarterfinals	4–6 April	Napoli (ITA)	Great Britain	3–2	Win
	World Group, semifinals	12–14 September	Geneva (SWI)	Switzerland	2–3	Loss
2015	World Group, 1st Round	6–8 March	Astana (KAZ)	Kazakhstan	2–3	Loss
	World Group play-offs	18–20 September	Irkutsk (RUS)	Russia	4–1	Win
2016	World Group, 1st Round	4–6 March	Pesaro (ITA)	Switzerland	5–0	Win
	World Group, quarterfinals	15–17 July	Pesaro (ITA)	Argentina	1–3	Loss
2017	World Group, 1st Round	3–5 February	Buenos Aires (ARG)	Argentina	3–2	Win
	World Group, quarterfinals	7–9 April	Charleroi (BEL)	Belgium	2–3	Loss
2018	World Group, 1st Round	2–4 February	Morioka (JPN)	Japan	3–1	Win
	World Group, quarterfinals	6–8 April	Genoa (ITA)	France	1–3	Loss
2019	Qualifying round	2–4 February	Kolkata (IND)	India	3–1	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	18 November	Madrid (ESP)	Canada	1–2	Loss
	Finals, Round-robin	20 November	Madrid (ESP)	United States	1–2	Loss

2020s

Year	Competition	Date	Location	Opponent	Score	Result
2020–21	Qualifying round	6–7 March	Cagliari (ITA)	South Korea	4–0	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	26 November	Turin (ITA)	United States	2–1	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	27 November	Turin (ITA)	Colombia	2–1	Win
	Finals, quarterfinals	29 November	Turin (ITA)	Croatia	1–2	Loss
2022	Qualifying round	4–5 March	Bratislava (SVK)	Slovakia	3–2	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	14 September	Bologna (ITA)	Croatia	3–0	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	16 September	Bologna (ITA)	Argentina	2–1	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	18 September	Bologna (ITA)	Sweden	2–1	Win
	Finals, quarterfinals	24 November	Málaga (ESP)	United States	2–1	Win
	Finals, semifinals	26 November	Málaga (ESP)	Canada	1–2	Loss
2023	Finals, Round-robin	13 september	Bologna (ITA)	Canada	0–3	Loss
	Finals, Round-robin	15 September	Bologna (ITA)	Chile	3–0	Win
	Finals, Round-robin	17 September	Bologna (ITA)	Sweden	2–1	Win
	Finals, quarterfinals	23 November	Málaga (ESP)	Netherlands	2–1	Win
	Finals, semifinals	25 November	Málaga (ESP)	Serbia	2–1	Win
	Finals, finals	26 November	Málaga (ESP)	Australia	2–0	Champions
2024	Finals, Round-robin
	Finals, Round-robin
	Finals, Round-robin

Although Italy had started its adventure in the Davis Cup back in 1922, it was only in 1928 that the team had its first captain and it was Baron Uberto De Morpurgo, who was also a player on that occasion.

Beginning in the 1950s, the team captain's position became a kind of coach called the non-playing captain.

Notes

¹ Crotta replaced Bergamo as captain after the Semifinals during the 1979 campaign.