“The monopoly of the four Grand Slam tournaments will not last a lifetime and the future will see not Rome but all of Italian tennis as the protagonist”. Angelo Binaghipresident of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, sent a clear message in the press conference to present the Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2024.
After having obtained – through important work – the two-week upgrade, FITP’s number one relaunched and indirectly revealed what could be the next objective to pursue.
Binaghi: “We’re tired of being second.
Sinner is in the rankings and we are for the Slams”
“The road that led the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, an event that failed in 2001, 2002, to first become a combined event and then to obtain the upgrade, was much more difficult than the one that separates us from the monopoly of the four Slams .
It is a moment of great movement in world tennis: there are finally great Italian leaders, reformists, we have never had in tennis. I believe that as happened with the Nitto ATP Finals, the true values will come out.
And I believe Rome has great prospects ahead of it: when and how I can’t tell you, but we think we have reached the highest point and we want to continue growing. This is our goal, and if we didn’t have it, we would have already retired from tennis”, said Binaghi in the words reported by SuperTennis and before focusing on the “numbers”.
“We’re a bit tired of being second. Jannik Sinner is second in the rankings. We are second in the world because there are the Slams, which are bigger tournaments than the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. We are now clearly second in Italy in terms of popularity after football .
But sport teaches that you have to try to win, you can’t be happy staying second. I already said that Jannik will succeed first. And I believe that his victory, as I said last year in a press conference with one of his sponsors, Pigna, can help Italian tennis achieve the other objectives that I explained before.”
