Sweden Delivers Final Blow to Italy

No mercy.

With two singles wins already in hand and opponent Italy reduced to a makeshift lineup because of injury, Sweden pounded out a methodical straight-set doubles victory Saturday to win its third Davis Cup in five years.

Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti toyed briefly with Italy’s Diego Nargiso and stand-in Davide Sanguinetti before shifting into overdrive for the 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 6-3 triumph.

It gave the defending champion a 3-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Today’s singles matches, now meaningless, will be reduced to best-of-three matches.

“This one isn’t nicer, it’s just different. We never get satisfied with winning,” Swedish captain Carl-Axel Hageskog said. “It’s a nice feeling and we want it more and more.”

Italy’s chance for its first Davis Cup trophy since 1976 was compromised in Friday’s opening match, when Andrea Gaudenzi retired because of a strained shoulder tendon at 6-6 in the fifth set of a five-hour ordeal against Sweden’s Magnus Norman.

Gaudenzi, Nargiso’s regular doubles partner, had surgery on the shoulder in October and had not played an official match since helping upset the United States in the semifinals.

“Andrea’s injury made all our plans go up in smoke,” Italian captain Paolo Bertolucci said.

Even the crowd seemed resigned.

Playing host to a Davis Cup final for the first time, Italy had counted on its notoriously boisterous fans to provide an edge. But the 12,000 spectators at the sold-out Assago Forum went eerily silent during portions of the doubles match, and even turned on their own in the latter stages--jeering and whistling derisively after some of the Italians’ many unforced errors.

When Sanguinetti mistimed a backhand and sent the ball flying into the seats in the third set, someone screamed, “Andrea would have won this for us.”

He probably at least would have helped put up a better fight. After extending the first set to a tiebreaker, Italy lost 41 of the ensuing 53 points.

Adding insult to injury for Sanguinetti, his wallet and cellular phone were stolen from a courtside racket bag during the postmatch confusion when the Swedish team and some spectators ran onto the court to celebrate.