ROME (AP) — Sure he’s got the biggest and most prestigious trophies. Jannik Sinner, the freshly-crowned U.S. Open champion, hasn’t been the only Italian taking home hardware during an extraordinary year for the country’s tennis movement, though.
Jasmine Paolini was the runner-up at successive Grand Slams, reaching the singles final at both the French Open and Wimbledon — plus the doubles final in Paris with Sara Errani.
Paolini then teamed up with Errani to win gold in the women’s doubles at the Paris Olympics.
Lorenzo Musetti also took home the bronze in the men’s singles for Italy’s first Olympic tennis medal in 100 years.
Then Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the mixed doubles trophy at the U.S. Open days before Sinner’s latest triumph in New York — which cemented his status as No. 1 in the rankings.
Simone Bolelli and Vavassori were also the runners-up in the men’s doubles at the year’s opening two Grand Slams.
Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian tennis and padel federation, said: “We need to prepare ourselves because we’re entering a new era. Do you remember (Bjorn) Borg’s Sweden or (Rafael) Nadal’s Spain? The numbers tell us that this will be Italy’s era. We’re making more and more progress, with the women, too.”
Sinner’s burden
Sinner’s Australian Open title in January made him the first Italian man to win a Grand Slam title in nearly a half-century — since Adriano Panatta raised the French Open trophy in 1976. And now he has two in one year.
Shortly before the U.S. Open started, Sinner was exonerated in a doping case that he had been dealing with for months, but that hadn’t been made public until shortly before play began at Flushing Meadows.
“He won two of the four Slams and played the other two with a huge burden hanging over his shoulders,” Binaghi said.
Next goal
Italy has seven men ranked in the top 50, is the defending Davis Cup champion and has three top doubles teams in Errani-Paolini, Bolelli-Vavassori and Errani-Vavassori, who will aim for more hardware in the mixed events.
“Get your tickets and enjoy this era of success,” Binaghi said. “The next goal will be to win a big tournament in Italy.”
The last home man to win the Italian Open singles title was Panatta in 1976, while Raffaella Reggi was the last Italian woman to win her home tournament in 1985.
Sinner withdrew from this year’s Italian Open due to a hip injury.
Super TV coverage
Binaghi, who has led the Italian federation since 2001 — back when the Italian Open often attracted more fans to its after-hours disco parties than what happened on the courts — attributes much of his country’s boom to the development of the SuperTennis TV channel.
The federation’s outlet, which operates 24 hours per day broadcasting tournaments worldwide year-round to Italian households, is the country’s most-watched non-soccer sports channel.
Sunday’s final, in which Sinner beat Taylor Fritz, was watched by an average of 1.8 million people on SuperTennis, which had a total of 3.6 million viewers and a 10.12% share — meaning that about one in every 10 people watching TV in Italy was watching the U.S. Open.
“We gave Italians free tennis coverage,” Binaghi said on the channel after Sinner’s victory.
The success of Italian players is also due to the abundance of lower-level Challenger events in the country. On Monday, Francesco Passaro won one such tournament in Genoa to give the nation 10 singles titles on that circuit this year.
Bigger arenas
Italy will also host the ATP Finals in November for the fourth consecutive year, with Sinner having finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2023.
While the current contract for the Turin-based tournament expires after the 2025 edition, the Italian federation is working to extend the deal.
The year-ending event for the top eight men’s singles players and doubles teams could then be moved to a bigger arena being built in Milan for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
“We’re not at full capacity just at the Foro Italico for the Italian Open or the Inalpi Arena (for the ATP Finals),” Binaghi said. “Our tennis and padel clubs are overcrowded and have long waiting lists.
“We need to make big investments in infrastructure,” Binaghi added, before anticipating a future announcement. “I’ll tell you right now that in a year or 1 ½ years we will do something else crazy.”
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
