Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs defended Jannik Sinner after Italy won their fourth Davis Cup title without the latter’s services. Sinner decided to withdraw from the Davis Cup finals, and he faced a lot of backlash in the country.
As the tour has a hectic schedule, Sinner decided to pull out of the Davis Cup finals. Meanwhile, Italy was able to clean sweep Spain in the final to defend their title.
On the other hand, Sinner won the Nitto ATP Finals after beating rival Carlos Alcaraz in the summit clash in straight sets.
“But we have to talk about Davis Cup. Italy wins their third Davis Cup in a row, without Jannik Sinner. And remember I was like, well, everyone was like, upset at him for not playing and all this sort of stuff. I’m like, dude, the guy’s just had an incredibly long year. He’s just won the last tournament of the year. He’s exhausted,” Stubbs said on his podcast.
Stubbs co-host Caitlin Thompson pointed out that Italy and Spain can’t escape each other on the tennis court. Alcaraz and Sinner also played four big finals (three Majors and one ATP Finals) of 2025 against each other, winning two each.
“Going back to what is a real sport, tennis. It is pretty funny to me that Italy won their third in a row, yes, without Jannik Sinner, and Spain came in second and also did not have Carlos Alcaraz. These two countries cannot escape each other. Now they’ve played against each other either in the form of Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz in all of the major tournaments, and then of course it comes down to those two in the finals,” Thompson said.
While Sinner withdrew from the Davis Cup due to workload, Alcaraz decided to opt out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury.
