Italian tennis will march towards Olympic Games Of Paris, which will begin next July 26, with an army that few other nations can boast. Yesterday the names of our racket players lined up at the start of the Games were made official. The list includes four Italians in the men’s singles draw, three girls in the women’s singles, two couples in the men’s doubles and two couples in the women’s doubles. Before going into detail about the names and couples who will be lined up in Paris, a romantic step into history. The current objective is to win an Olympic medal which, officially, has been missing for exactly a century, i.e. since 1924 when Baron Uberto de Morpungo won bronze in the first edition of the Games which took place in Paris. The Azzurri who participated in that edition between the two world wars were Cesare Colombo, Clemente Serventi, Riccardo Sabbadini and Uberto de Morpungo. The only one to advance in the tournament was the Baron himself: in the quarter-finals he overcame the Japanese Takeichi Harada, then failed to qualify for the final, losing to the future Olympic gold medalist, the American Vinnie Richards. In the final, de Morpungo won 3-2 over Frenchman Jean Borotra, winning a historic bronze.
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Of the same metal were those of Paolino Canè (gold went to Stedan Edberg) and Raffaella Reggi (queen was Steffi Graf) at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics but on that occasion tennis was included in the Olympic program only as a demonstration sport. Returning to today, we examine the names of the Italians chosen for the Olympics to discover that we could win medals in every discipline. It goes without saying that Jannik Sinner is among the favorites for gold in the men’s singles, but the other three Italians can also figure well: Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Arnaldi and Luciano Darderi. That is, the four best in the Olympic Race, the ranking of the last 12 months. Cobolli, Berrettini and Sonego remained outside. Three Italians in the women’s singles: Roland Garros finalist Jasmine Paolini will be joined by Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Lucia Bronzetti.
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In the doubles, there are considerable hopes of getting on the podium: Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli, finalists in Rome and Paris, will have as adventure companions the unprecedented and very interesting couple formed by Sinner and Musetti. Among the women on the front line there are Paolini-Errani but also the possible outsiders Cocciaretto-Bronzetti. Still to be defined who will play the mixed doubles. In theory, our Sinner could win three medals if he participated in the mixed competition while in every discipline Italy could win a medal. Confirming that Italian tennis is experiencing a DOC vintage. As if it were a vintage champagne.
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