Italy ease to victory against the United States to retain Billie Jean King Cup

Italy swept aside the United States to retain the Billie Jean King Cup with a dominant victory in the final in Shenzhen.

The Italians defeated Slovakia to claim the top prize in Spain 12 months ago and returned with a similar line-up this time under the leadership of captain Tathiana Garbin.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who had lost her semi-final singles match against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, landed the first blow for the reigning champions when defeating Emma Navarro in straight sets 6-4 6-4 to get Italy on the front foot.

Jasmine Paolini, a fan favourite in Shenzhen, stepped on court next to face Jessica Pegula and she ensured the trophy would be heading straight back to Italy with a 6-4 6-2 win.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Paolini said. “Today was a really tough match. We’re really happy and proud of ourselves, of our team. It’s a great day for Italy.

“I was so happy with the win of Elisabetta, she did an amazing job, it was an amazing match. It is so much better to step on court when you are 1-0 up, so thank you Elisabetta.

“I thought that was another tough match with the United States. It was really complicated I think, but we did an amazing job.

“I was thinking about my match against Pegula, she’s an amazing player. I was trying to focus on myself and I was hoping not to play doubles after that.”

On Italy’s continued success in the tournament and the legacy it will create, Paolini added: “It’s amazing to show how we fight on court. We try to do our best.

“I think to play for the national team, it’s something that I was watching, I was dreaming to do (growing up).

“Hopefully many, many girls are going to start to play tennis. I think tennis in Italy is growing a lot. Hopefully we are going to inspire some little girls.”

Cocciaretto said: “I’m really happy. I’m super happy right now about the performance, about the win.

“I played a really great match against a really tough opponent, so I was super happy and super proud to take the first point for Italy.

“It was amazing seeing a lot of Chinese people cheering for us. We also have our papers with ‘Forza Ragazze’ on them – that means ‘come on girls’. They were really cute, really nice.

“The crowd supported me a lot today, the Italian crowd, the Chinese crowd. I’m really honoured by that.”

Lindsay Davenport, captain of the American team, said of their defeat: “Obviously we are disappointed with how it went.

“We felt like we had a great opportunity but, man, both of those ladies played great tennis. Congratulations to them.

“We’ll just keep trying. We’ll get another chance hopefully next year to be back here.

“We’ll hopefully learn from today. Hopefully these players go on to play great in the rest of the year.

“I look forward to watching the year play out for all the Americans. It’s been a great week. A tough day, but a great week.”