There day of the Internationals in Rome lives on the men’s qualifiers and the first matches of the women’s draw. But it is also an approach march with training sessions Djokovic and Nadal which have a packed house that turns up even an hour early just to see the two great champions up close. Everything is ready for the doubles tournament with Vavassori and Bolelli dreaming big.
Nadal and Djokovic: VIP training sessions and ecstatic fans
The men’s tournament has yet to start but on the courts of the Foro Italico there is already an air of great tennis. The fans hunt for the “big names” and it is easy to find them on the training pitches. This morning there was great euphoria for the training he saw in front of him in the morning Rafa Nadal and Stefanos Tsitsipaswhile in the early afternoon the fans of the Foro Italico competed to try to get a close look at another VIP training session between Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrova comparison worth the final of a 1000.
Vavassori and Bolelli chasing the doubles title
L’Italy cannot count on the talent of Jannik Sinner to hope to make a big splash in Rome but hope comes from the doubles with the draw that was drawn today. There are four entirely Italian couples taking part in the tournament with a derby immediately in the first round. Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli they are returning from a positive year. The objective remains to participate in the Finals in Turin but doing well in the home tournament is also not to be underestimated. In the first round there was a derby for them immediately given that on the other side of the net there was the pair made up of Musetti and Cobolli.
In the main draw which also sees the new world number 1s at the start, the Spaniard Marcel Granollers and the Argentine Horacio Zeballos There are also Matteo Arnaldi And Francesco Passaro who have obtained a wild card and who in the first round find the very strong duo made up of Bopanna and Ebden. Also on the scoreboard is another all-Italian couple made up of Jacopo Bilardo and Giorgio Ricca.
The rebirth of Passaro
The match of the day in the men’s qualifiers was the opposite Francesco Passaro to Duse Ajdukovica real battle with three sets all ending in tiebreaks in which the blue came out on top and took the main draw and an important revenge for his career: “It hasn’t been an easy year and a half but I train every day for these emotions. Qualifying for Rome is beautiful. What has happened to me since 2023? Being close to the Top100 and then finding yourself at position number 240 is not easy even considering that many of my peers had managed to make the leap. I guess at that moment I wasn’t ready to be that high. Training with Sinner was a unique experience. It gave me so much energy and confidence. He is a wonderful boy and he has always dealt with me in the right way. From him I want to steal the ability to face every day. He has the mind of a true worker”.
