The huge banner said it all: "Welcome to Hell". The Swedes had always imagined that if they were to retain the Davis Cup on Italian soil they would have to face the fire eternal, to say nothing of the burning clay. But in an extraordinary opening to the final, it was Italy's Andrea Gaundenzi who found himself and his country plunged into the depths.
At the close of the first day, Sweden had taken a seemingly impregnable 2-0 lead after Gaudenzi, who will take no further part in the final, had been forced to retire in the fifth set of a five-hour match against Magnus Norman, and a clearly demoralised Davide Sanguinetti then lost in a rush 6-1, 6-4, 6-0 to Magnus Gustafsson.
Gaudenzi knew how vital it would be to give his side a winning start, preferably in straight sets, for he had not played a single game since leading his country to their shock semi-final victory over the United States in Milwaukee in September.
He had needed surgery to a right shoulder injury in October and there was always a risk that he might be suspect under extreme pressure. And so, cruelly, it proved.
Gaudenzi received treatment at two sets all, the trainer seemingly rubbing in a whole jar of ointment to ease the pain. Norman immediately took advantage to race to a 4-0 fifth-set lead only for Guadenzi to stage an astonishing comeback during which Norman's nerve began to crack alarmingly.
The Italian saved a match point but then, when serving to a 6-5 lead, the shoulder problem recurred. More treatment allowed him to continue briefly but once his next turn to serve came, it was obvious Gaudenzi would not be able to carry on. At 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-6 and 0-30 he threw his racket despondently into the net and then retired.
"I'm going to have surgery on Monday," said Gaudenzi. "I cannot even lift a glass." Few Italian tennis fans could do so either unless it was to drown their sorrows, for Gaudenzi's injury virtually put paid to their hopes of repeating their first Davis Cup success of 1976.
This was a day of high tennis drama. The noise was immense and the Swedes must have feared the worst. Klaxons blared, drums were thumped and cymbals clashed.
Initially the 22-year-old Norman was the personification of Swedish cool. The Swedes had pronounced themselves satisfied with the indoor clay court, suggesting it was reasonably fast, and two aces in Norman's first service game appeared to endorse this view. Thereafter it became slower and slower.
The tennis, for the most part, was terrible but the drama was constantly gripping, right down to that final moment when Gaudenzi, mortified, threw in the towel.
