Not just Sinner, from Arnaldi-Musetti to… How Ital-tennis was born and conquered the world

Jannik Sinner and the golden generation of Italian tennis

Generation of phenomena, or at least excellent players: Italian tennis pampers itself with “King” Jannik Sinner, but it can celebrate an entire movement that is growing on a qualitative and quantitative level. The 2024 Australian Open and the Davis Cup colored blue after 47 years of abstinence they are the cover of a novel featuring the many players of our country in the world top-100: seven and this is the best thermometer to tell the state of health of this discipline in Italy.

Jannik Sinner, but also Musetti-Arnaldi and… 7 Italians in the top-100 in the world

Behind Sinnernumber 3 in the ATP ranking, here is the class of 2002 Lorenzo Musetti (24th, golden arm and talent that must find continuity, but remember when he defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the final at the ATP 500 in Hamburg in July 2022?), Matteo Arnaldi (38th c hunting for the best classic in his career with his run in the ATP 1000 underway in Miami), Lorenzo Sonego (53), Flavio Cobolli (63), Luciano Darderi (75) e Luca Nardi (96).

With a special and dutiful citation for the eternal talent of Fabio Fognini who at almost 37 years of age is still there to delight the fans with his pure class play (and remains close to the top 100: he is currently 103). And then: here's the expert Andrea Vavassori in the top-150, a couple of interesting young people on the launching pad (Giulio Zeppieri and Matteo Gigante), as well as a Matteo Berrettini who really wants to get back to his levels.

The 28-year-old Roman champion deserves a separate discussion. He suffered from the many injuries suffered in recent seasons, but it was enough for him to pick up the racket again after 7 and a half months of absence from the circuit to first reach the final at the ATP 125 in Phoenix and then taking an old vixen of the circuit to the third set in Miami, 36-year-old Andy Murray (the former Fab Four in the wake of Nadal-Djokovic-Federer), despite a day in which he suffered a minor illness (“I wasn't feeling well before”, he said after the match).

Italian people of tennis players behind King Sinner (but the Italians also give flashes of light) – The happy generational change

And here we come to the question: how come, after years of lights and shadows (more shadows than lights) have we discovered a population of tennis players? A thousand reasons. Meanwhile, a bit of luck is also needed. As in all sports there are generational replacements more or less happy. And the latter was simply… very happy on a male level, while the women after many years full of satisfaction (from Francesca Schiavone to Sara Erranipassing through Roberta Vinci And Flavia Pennetta to name a few) now they struggle a little more.

Although it should be underlined that only a few months ago the blue girls (led by the duo Paolini-Trevisan with Lucia Bronzetti, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Lucrezia Stefanini) have conquered the Billie Jean King Cup final (the 'Davis' in pink) e Jasmine Paolini at the end of February he won the WTA 1000 in Dubai reaching its best ranking at number 14 in the world rankings. Without to forget Camila Giorgi who took Canada's WTA 1000 in 2021 and Martina Trevisan semi-finalist at Roland Garros 2022.

Italian people of tennis players behind King Sinner – The work of the Federation

But let's go back toItal-Sinner and at 'blue tennis phenomenon' which makes Italian fans dream. Credit must certainly be given to Federation and to many tennis clubs scattered across the country: if today we reap the fruits of these sporting explosions, we congratulate ourselves on our young talents capable of winning in every corner of the globe, it is evident that the sowing starts from afar, several years ago from serious managerial work and the passion of the tennis instructors who work in our country.

Fognini, Berrettini and Sinner, this is how the 'tennis phenomenon' breaks through in Italy

The last, but not the least. Certainly the explosion and the exploits of the great blue tennis players have been good for the entire movement. Victory brings victory, Enthusiasm generates enthusiasm. We could define it as a Valentino Rossi-Max Biaggi-Loris Capirossi or Alberto Tomba effect if we go back in time and move from the MotoGP track to the Ski World Cup track.

The good example that starts from Fabio Fognini who in 2019 won the ATP tournament in Monte Carlo (beating Rafa Nadal in the semi-final on clay), passing through Matteo Berrettini capable of reaching the final at Wimbledon (with semi-finals at the Australian and US Open), triumphing twice on the grass of Queen's and climbing up to number 6 ATP. It is almost useless to talk about Jannik Sinner's exploitsbecause they went around the planet.

Although it is not a non-team sport (Davis aside), certainly having stars who win can only be good for young people growing up: successes that instill confidence and create the imitation effect. Without forgetting that some of these guys have had and are lucky enough to train with these champions, studying them closely and learning from them.

Let us remember and as an example the words of the young Luca Nardi about ten days ago after beating Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells. “For sure, like all Italian players, I look up to Jannik for what he does. I have had the chance to train with him many times. I always try to learn from him, because he is a very kind boy, a hard worker, and he is very It's nice what he's doing for Italy, for our country, for tennis in Italy, because now tennis is becoming even more popular. I hope I can achieve it. Not with his results, but you never know.”

In short, Jannik shows the way and his tennis 'people' are ready to follow him.