ATP Match of the Year, No. 3: Flavio Cobolli, Zizou Bergs give everything in a 32-point Davis Cup tiebreaker

This week, Steve Tignor will reveal his ATP Matches of the Year, and the TENNIS.com editors will reveal our ATP Players of the Year. The WTA editions will begin Monday, December 8.

“We cannot lose for our country,” Flavio Cobolli said after this year’s Davis Cup Final. “You can never lose if you give it all, what you have in your heart.”

Coming from a man who had just led Italy to its third straight Cup title, those words might sound like a bit of poetic exaggeration. There’s always a winner and a loser, right? In this case, maybe not. Bergs finished this epic struggle in tears, but listening to him later, it seemed like Cobolli had a point: Davis Cup lifts all boats.

“I don’t think it gets more emotional than this,” Bergs said after his 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (15) loss. “It’s a combination of really, really enjoying being out there, as well as feeling so much love for your team and for the fans that I hear, dealing with a very difficult crowd.”

“All those combinations make it a very emotional one. At least I’m really happy that I enjoyed myself out there.”

Cobolli’s teammate Matteo Berrettini was so nervous, he pulled his shirt over his eyes and hid behind his teammates. By the time it was over, Cobolli had saved seven match points, and Bergs six.

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Davis Cup did for the 22nd-ranked Cobolli and the 43rd-ranked Bergs what it has done for countless lesser-known players over the past 125 years: It gave them a shot at glory. The season’s Grand Slam events were over, and the ATP’s stars—Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic—had already started their vacations. But the stakes felt just as high, and the fans were every bit as involved, when these two took the court in Bologna with Italy up 1-0.

The noise in the arena began at maximum volume, and somehow only grew louder over the next three hours. The players, as Cobolli said, gave everything they had on every point. Roughly the same size, and with similar baseline styles, they stood their ground and slugged, sprinted, grunted, and never backed down for three long, close sets. Cobolli, a rising star, played and performed with theatrical Italian flair. Bergs’s backwards hat, sweaty brown hair, and stomping gait recalled one of the grittiest of recent players, David Ferrer.

Bergs showed enough grit to fend off Cobolli and the crowd in a tight second-set tiebreak. That set up the unforgettable finale, a 98-minute third set, capped by a 32-point tiebreaker. As the breaker went on, the two rose to the occasion at certain moments, and showed their nerves on others. Cobolli’s teammate Matteo Berrettini was so nervous, he pulled his shirt over his eyes and hid behind his teammates. By the time it was over, Cobolli had saved seven match points, and Bergs six.

Bergs led 3-1 4-2, 5-3, and 6-4. But with a chance to end it on his serve, he pulled the trigger too quickly and sent a forehand 10 feet long. Up again 7-6, Bergs looked like he had the point won, only to see Cobolli make a series of retrievals, get back in the rally, attack the net, and close with a smash.

“What are we watching right now?” one commentator asked in astonishment, as the crowd went berserk.

Bergs also performed a miracle or two. He saved one match point with a lunging volley winner, and another with a brilliant set of increasingly lethal forehands. At 14-14, he reflexed back a pair of defensive backhands, and drew an error on a smash from Cobolli. That set up Bergs’s seventh match point. With Cobolli and the crowd reeling from his miss, and Bergs taking the ball to serve, it felt like the Belgian might finally have the upper hand for good.

That’s when he made his fatal mistake. On the first shot of the next rally, Bergs had a look at a mid-court forehand. Instead of pummeling it, the way he had been, he tried a drop shot. He hit it well, but this wasn’t the moment to try to catch Cobolli napping. The Italian bolted to the net in plenty of time, and sliced a forehand that Bergs couldn’t handle. The score was 15-15. The fans were relieved. Momentum had shifted back to Cobolli, this time for good.

“There were so many important points,” Bergs said. “In those moments you’re going to fail, you’re going to do right things. Even if you do the right thing sometimes, doesn’t mean you’re going to get rewarded.”

“I was just laughing so many times on court,” he said, “realizing what crazy points we’re doing in a crazy atmosphere.”

Two days later, the 23-year-old Cobolli would win a second epic against Jaume Munar, to clinch the Cup for Italy and give his country another star to watch. But nothing could top his tiebreaker with Bergs. When it was over, Cobolli celebrated by tearing his shirt in half.

Asked later if he was paying tribute to his favorite player, and another notorious shirt-shredder, Novak Djokovic, Cobolli said no. He was thinking of someone even more powerful.

“Today I felt like I was trying to be like Hulk,” he said with a laugh.

Davis Cup can still change mortals into superheroes for a day. As Cobolli said, you can’t lose for your country, if you give what’s in your heart.