BOLOGNA/WASHINGTGON, November 17, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

The Davis Cup Final 8 has arrived in Bologna, the lively and historic capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. Six of the eight teams in this year’s finale have previously won at least one Davis Cup title: Argentina, Czechia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. That leaves just Austria and Belgium on the outside looking in. 

However, all eyes and much interest will focus on defending champion Italy, which will go after its third consecutive Davis Cup crown after winning the 2023 and 2024 titles, thanks no less to World No. 2 Jannik Sinner, who just won his second consecutive Nitto ATP Finals championship Sunday in Turin – and made major headlines across the tennis world recently by announcing he would forgo representing Italy in this year’s Davis Cup Final 8 competition. Last week, World No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti added his name to the Italians who will be missing in action in Bologna. Fortunately for Italy’s team captain Filippo Volandri, he has a deep bench to call upon – even without Sinner and Musetti.

As the Final 8 Knockout Stage begins on Tuesday afternoon and continues through Thursday evening, it’s anyone’s guess who the last four will be. A lot can happen over the course of a tie, which features two singles rubbers and a doubles rubber decider. However, if pundits are to be trusted – and one need only look at each quarterfinal tie to realize there are some very well-established (and ancient) Davis Cup rivalries – it would not be a surprise to see France, defending champion and top-ranked Italy, Spain and Argentina advance to the last four, which takes place on Friday and Saturday.

By next Sunday, there will be just two nations remaining to decide the Davis Cup Final. Don’t be shocked if the host nation, Italy, is one of the finalists. After all, they have a chance to go after a three-peat and add to their rich Davis Cup history, which includes three Davis Cup titles (1976, 2023, 2024) in 94 seasons of competing, and there will be plenty of Italian fans filling up the seats in the new, state-of-the-art SuperTennis Arena at BolognaFiere exhibition center.

The schedule for the Final 8 is out! pic.twitter.com/vFg8uHhdlE

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 19, 2025

Here is a breakdown of the four quarterfinal ties:

• France versus Belgium on Tuesday, beginning at 4 p.m. CET. The French face the Belgians for the 10th time, 121 years after their first Davis Cup meeting in 1904, which Belgium won 3-2. France leads the head-to-head series 6-3 and has won the last four tussles, including the 2017 Davis Cup Final, when France won 3-2 to earn their 10th and most recent title. 

Despite an Italian team minus World No. 2 Jannik Sinner and World No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti, Italy still boasts a talent-rich roster, which includes: No. 22 Flavio Cobolli, Lorenzo Sonego and Matteo Berrettini in singles and World No. 7 Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in doubles. Austria will counter with No. 79 Filip Misolic, Jurij Rodionov and Lukas Neumayer in singles and Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler in doubles.

• Defending champion Italy versus Austria on Wednesday, beginning at 4 p.m. CET. The defending champions will be taking on Austria in their seventh meeting overall – but first in 35 years. While Italy won the first five, between 1930 and 1972, Austria won the most recent tie between the two nations, in a 1990 World Group quarterfinal. The Italians are bidding to reach the semifinals for a fourth consecutive year and to win their third consecutive Davis Cup title.

Despite an Italian team minus World No. 2 Jannik Sinner and World No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti, Italy still boasts a talent-rich roster, which includes: No. 22 Flavio Cobolli, Lorenzo Sonego and Matteo Berrettini in singles and World No. 7 Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in doubles. Austria will counter with No. 79 Filip Misolic, Jurij Rodionov and Lukas Neumayer in singles and Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler in doubles.

Matteo Berrettini is ready to defend Italy’s Davis Cup crown #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/dNu2qUTec6

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 17, 2025

• Spain versus Czechia on Thursday, beginning at 10 a.m. CET. It will be the 10th Davis Cup meeting between the two nations with Spain leading the head-to-head competition 5-4. They’ve met twice in the Davis Cup Finals, won in 2009 by Spain 5-0 in Barcelona, and in 2012 won by Czechia 3-2 in Prague.

Both teams look to be rich in singles  talent. For Spain, they will be able to draw upon World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who is fresh off his ATP Year-End No. 1 honors and finishing runner-up at the Nitto ATP Finals; Jaume Munar, Pedro Martinez and Pablo Carreño Busta. Their doubles will be anchored by World No. 6 Marcel Granollers. Meanwhile, Czechia boasts World No. 17 Jiri Lehecka,  World No. 19 Jakub Mensik and Tomas Machac – all Top-40 talent – and rounds out its roster with Vit Kopriva and Adam Pavlasek.

• Argentina versus Germany on Thursday, beginning at 5 p.m. CET. Argentina leads the head-to-head 7-3. They won the first meeting in 1936, then did not meet against until 1981, the first of four straight Argentina victories. They are looking to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2016.

Argentina will field a lineup that includes World No. 21 Francisco Cerundolo, Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Francisco Comesana in singles and World No. 5 Horacio Zeballos and Andres Molteni in doubles. Germany, looking to return to the semifinals for the second straight year, are led by World No. 3 Alexander Zverev plus veterans Jan-Lenard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann and World No. 6 doubles partners Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, who competed at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin last week.

Looking ahead to the weekend:

• On Friday, the first semifinal begins at 4 p.m. CET and will match up the France-Belgium winner against the Italy-Austria winner. On Saturday, the second semifinal begins at noon CET and will feature the Spain-Czechia winner versus the Argentina-Germany winner.

• Finally, the Davis Cup championship tie matching Saturday’s semifinal winners is scheduled for 3 p.m. CET on Sunday, Nov. 23.

Which of these matchups are you most looking forward to!? #DavisCup pic.twitter.com/4MYm0ZLaRb

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 17, 2025

Davis Cup news & noteworthy

In his welcome event remarks Sunday evening at Palazzo Re Enzo, during a dinner for the eight Davis Cup teams competing this week in Bologna and the event’s partners, ITF President David Haggerty said: “We are pleased to be in Bologna for the first time as the event begins a new chapter here in Italy.

“The 2025 Davis Cup has seen players from more than 150 nations compete across multiple levels of the competition from regional events to the pinnacle of the Davis Cup Finals with every competitor relishing the honor of representing their team.

“Thank you to the players, the captains and the National Associations for stepping up to represent their nations and make the Davis Cup such a special competition. The revenue that the ITF generates from Davis Cup is reinvested into the development of tennis at national level, so by competing in Davis Cup the players contribute to delivering tennis for future generations.”

Finding the names etched in history ✨#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/JRkfM0lj8k

— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) November 16, 2025

By the numbers

• In total, 16 nations have won the Davis Cup, led by the United States (32), Australia (28) and France and Great Britain (10 each). Two nations who are competing at the Final 8 knockout stage this year, Austria and Belgium, have never previously won the Davis Cup title.

• All eight Davis Cup teams captains competed in the Davis Cup as players and two of the captains – Tomas Berdych of Czechia and David Ferrer of Spain – won the Davis Cup title as a player.

“Quotable …”

“Every time I step onto the court representing Argentina, I feel different than during the year in a normal match. I know I have all my teammates and all the staff behind me, and my country supporting me, so I try to perform as well as possible on the court. It’s probably one of the best feelings that I have in my career as a player.”

– Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, who will play No. 1 singles in his team’s quarterfinal tie against Germany on Thursday, as quoted by the Davis Cup website.