Australian tennis dreams have been dashed once again as Lleyton Hewitt's team succumbed in a second straight Davis Cup final amid heartbreak and another jolting reality check in Malaga.
Italy ended up lifting the giant trophy for just the second time in Sunday's (Monday AEDT) showdown with a 2-0 victory fashioned amid misery for Alexei Popyrin and dispiriting deja vu for his fellow Sydneysider Alex de Minaur.
De Minaur, the hero of their quarter-final win over the Czech Republic earlier in the week with his comeback triumph, could this time only find gloom on the Costa del Sol as he reflected: "We are very, very close - it stinks like hell."
