ATP Copa Davis 2026 Lorenzo Musetti Matteo Berrettini

Italy confirms its team to defend the Davis Cup without the mysterious presence of Berrettini

Andrés Tomás Rico - 26 Oct 2026
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Italy confirms its team to defend the Davis Cup without Berrettini's presence. Photo: Getty Images

The champion is seeking her fourth consecutive salad bowl. Italy, which already has three Davis Cups in a row, wants to extend its reign even further, and Filippo Volandri has brought back a player for Bologna who couldn’t participate last year due to injury, namely Lorenzo Musetti. Additionally, there is also the newcomer Luciano Darderi, who is making his debut in a call-up. However, he retains last year's hero, Flavio Cobolli, and the doubles players Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori. However, the absence of a key player like Matteo Berrettini is notable.

Looking at Volandri's roster, Cobolli steps up to fill the void left vacant last year by Jannik Sinner and presents himself as the main Italian figure. Meanwhile, Musetti, who has had a very inconsistent year due to constant injuries, is expected to be the second option. Darderi will be the third player and could see action in Bologna if Cobolli or Musetti are not fit to take to the court in any of the ties.

What will not be happening is Berrettini's participation, who demonstrated last year to be a key figure in Italy's title defense, winning all his matches from the first round to the final against Spain. His absence may extend beyond a purely sporting decision.

Berrettini and Musetti may be going through a personal conflict

On social media, discussions are starting to arise about a poor relationship between Musetti and Berrettini, when they have always boasted of having a great friendship, also linked to certain personal problems between them and their partners. The arguments gaining more traction are two: that they no longer follow each other on social media and Berrettini's cold and dry response today when, after his victory in the first round of the ATP 500 in Vienna, he was asked about Musetti's win in Lyon.

“Your friend Lorenzo Musetti just won a title after quite some time, does that serve as inspiration for you?” the TennisTV reporter asked on the court. The Italian's face completely changed, and he asked, “Are we live?” to which the interviewer confirmed that they were. “Well, that’s fine... I know he worked very hard to come back and I suppose he deserves it,” concluded a very serious Berrettini.

For now, no hypothesis has been confirmed, nor has it been established that this was the reason for Berrettini's absence from the Italian team, but the atmosphere that the team would have had in Bologna would have been very far from cordial and united.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Italia confirma su equipo para defender la Copa Davis sin la misteriosa presencia de Berrettini