Tennis in Italy

Tennis in Italy is governed by the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation and is the 6th sport, with 1,298,000 people, by number of practitioners.^[1]

History[edit]

Five Italian players have won Grand Slam tournaments: Nicola Pietrangeli (1959 and 1960 French Championships), Adriano Panatta (1976 French Open), Francesca Schiavone (2010 French Open), Flavia Pennetta (2015 US Open) and Jannik Sinner (2024 Australian Open).

The men's national team won the Davis Cup two times (1976 and 2023) and the women's national team won the Fed Cup four times (2006, 2009, 2010, and 2013).

Women's tennis in particular has seen tremendous successes in the 21st century, with the advent of Francesca Schiavone, Sara Errani, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci. All four of these women reached the top 10 of the WTA rankings in both singles and doubles (with Schiavone and Errani reaching the top 5 in singles and Pennetta, Errani and Vinci reaching No 1 in doubles), and reached Grand Slam finals in both disciplines. Schiavone and Pennetta won singles Grand Slam titles, while Pennetta, Errani and Vinci won doubles Grand Slam titles, with Errani and Vinci achieving the Career Grand Slam in doubles as a pair. They were also responsible for Italy's 4 Fed Cup victories as members of the national Fed Cup team.

Players best singles ranking[edit]

In this table only those who have reached the top 20 in the world singles ranking.

Updated to 31 March 2024. Data refer to the Open Era (from 1968).^[2]

Men[edit]

Women[edit]

Grand slam best singles results[edit]

Men[edit]

Ten Italian tennis players played at least the semi-final in a Grand Slam tournament.^[3]

Women[edit]

Eight Italian female tennis players have reached at least the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament.^[4][5]

All tournament winners in Open Era[edit]

Male[edit]

As of 7 April 2024, 90 tournaments have been won by 28 Italian tennis players in the major circuit.

Female[edit]

As of 30 July 2023, 79 tournaments have been won by 21 Italian tennis players in the major circuit.

Italian wins against the Current World's Number 1[edit]

Male[edit]

Nine Italian tennis players managed to beat the current number 1 in the world.

#	Date	Player	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Current World's N.1	Score
1	17 May 1974	Corrado Barazzutti	Munich, West Germany	250 series	Clay	Ilie Năstase	6–3, 6–7, 6–1
2	9 November 1975	Adriano Panatta	Stockholm, Sweden	Masters 1000	Carpet	Jimmy Connors	4–6, 6–3, 7–5
3	18 April 1977	Adriano Panatta	Houston, United States	250 series	Clay	Jimmy Connors	6–1, 7–5
4	15 June 2000	Gianluca Pozzi	Queen's, Great Britain	250 series	Grass	Andre Agassi	4–6, 3–2 ret.
5	10 May 2007	Filippo Volandri	Rome, Italy	Masters 1000	Clay	Roger Federer	6–3, 6–4
6	16 May 2017	Fabio Fognini	Rome, Italy	Masters 1000	Clay	Andy Murray	6–2, 6–4
7	30 October 2020	Lorenzo Sonego	Vienna, Austria	500 series	Hard (i)	Novak Djokovic	6–2, 6–1
8	31 March 2023	Jannik Sinner	Miami, United States	Masters 1000	Hard	Carlos Alcaraz	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 6–2
9	13 April 2023	Lorenzo Musetti	Monte-Carlo, Monaco	Masters 1000	Clay	Novak Djokovic	4–6, 7–5, 6–4
10	14 November 2023	Jannik Sinner	Turin, Italy	ATP Finals	Hard (i)	Novak Djokovic	7–5, 6–7(5–7), 7–6(7–2)
11	25 November 2023	Jannik Sinner	Malaga, Spain	Davis Cup	Hard (i)	Novak Djokovic	6–2, 2–6, 7–5
11	26 January 2024	Jannik Sinner	Melbourne, Australia	Grand Slam	Hard	Novak Djokovic	6–1, 6–2, 6–7(6–8), 6–3
12	11 March 2024	Luca Nardi	Indian Wells, United States	Masters 1000	Hard	Novak Djokovic	6–4, 3–6, 6–3

Female[edit]

All-Italian finals in Open Era[edit]

Male[edit]

There were seven all-Italian finals in Open Era in the ATP Tour.^[6]

#	Date	Tournament	Venue	Tier	Surface	Winner	Runner-up	Result
1	May 1974	Florence Open	Florence	C events	Clay	Adriano Panatta	Paolo Bertolucci	6–4, 6–1
2	July 1976	Swedish Open	Båstad	Three-star events	Clay	Tonino Zugarelli	Corrado Barazzutti	4–6, 7–5, 6–2
3	March 1980	Cairo Open	Cairo	Grand Prix	Clay	Corrado Barazzutti	Paolo Bertolucci	4–6, 7–5, 6–2
4	April 1987	Hypo Group Tennis International	Bari	Grand Prix	Clay	Claudio Pistolesi	Francesco Cancellotti	6–7, 7–5, 6–3
5	May 1988	Florence Open	Florence	Grand Prix	Clay	Massimiliano Narducci	Claudio Panatta	3–6. 6–1, 6–4
6	Feb 2021	Great Ocean Road Open	Melbourne	250 Series	Hard	Jannik Sinner	Stefano Travaglia	7–6(7–4), 6–4
7	Oct 2022	Tennis Napoli Cup	Naples	250 Series	Hard	Lorenzo Musetti	Matteo Berrettini	7–6(7–5), 6–2

Female[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2021)

#	Date	Tournament	Venue	Tier	Surface	Winner	Runner-up	Result
1	May 1985	Spanish Open	Barcelona	WTA $50,000	Clay	Sandra Cecchini	Raffaella Reggi	6–3, 6–4
2	July 1990	Estoril Open	Oeiras	WTA Tier V	Clay	Federica Bonsignori	Laura Garrone	2–6, 6–3, 6–3
3	July 1991	San Marino Open	City of San Marino	WTA Tier V	Clay	Katia Piccolini	Silvia Farina	6–2, 6–3
4	March 2003	Morocco Open	Casablanca	WTA Tier V	Clay	Rita Grande	Antonella Serra Zanetti	6–2, 4–6, 6–1
5	February 2007	Copa Colsanitas	Bogotá	WTA Tier III	Clay	Roberta Vinci	Tathiana Garbin	6–7(5–7), 6–4, 0–3 ret.
6	July 2009	Internazionali Femminili di Palermo	Palermo	WTA International	Clay	Flavia Pennetta	Sara Errani	6–1, 6–2
7	April 2010	Barcelona Ladies Open	Barcelona	WTA International	Clay	Francesca Schiavone	Roberta Vinci	6–1, 6–1
8	February 2012	Abierto Mexicano Telcel	Acapulco	WTA International	Clay	Sara Errani	Flavia Pennetta	5–7, 7–6(7–2), 6–0
9	July 2013	Internazionali Femminili di Palermo	Palermo	WTA International	Clay	Roberta Vinci	Sara Errani	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
10	May 2015	Nürnberger Cup	Nürnberg	WTA International	Clay	Karin Knapp	Roberta Vinci	7–6(7–5), 4–6, 6–1
11	September 2015	US Open	New York City	Grand Slam	Hard	Flavia Pennetta	Roberta Vinci	7-6, 6-2

See also[edit]

• ATP Tour records
• Sport in Italy
• Italy Davis Cup team
• Italy Billie Jean King Cup team
• Italian Tennis and Padel Federation

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Italian Tennis Federation official site