For a moment someone said, “Imagine if they had been there too.” Jannik the fisherman And Matteo Berrettini… »
But in the end, even without them, Italian tennis at the Olympics shines thanks to the precious metals. A gold and a bronze. This has never happened in the history of this discipline.
Let's start with the bronze of Lorenzo Musetti. He lost the semi-final with Novak Djocovic who, in the final, beat Carlos Alcaraz, he became an Olympic champion. Not just any champion, but a tennis player who, at 37, with Olympic gold, had won everything that could be won in his career. The best tennis player of all time who says he is ready to return to Los Angeles to defend his medal at the age of 41.
And Lorenzo Musetti, then, at just over 22 years old, a few months younger than Sinner, lost with honor to the champion of champions. And then he won the bronze, exactly 100 years after the only medal won by Uberto De Morpurgo in 1924in the heart of Paris. Two sets to one against the Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime.
Then gold. “Gold, gold!!!!”, wrapped in the white, red and green tricolor flag, Sara Errani and Jasmin Paolini they shout with joy. At Roland Garros the happiness of the blue double explodes at the end of the super tie-break. A set for one, then the one who reaches 10 points first wins. And the Italians reach 10, beating the Russians under neutral flag, Mirra Andreeva who is only 17 years old and Diana Shnaiderbeaten 2-6 6-1 10-7 after one hour and 24 minutes of play.
A triumph that resides in the tears of Sara Errani which crowns a magnificent career, in the usual beautiful smile of J.Asmine Paolini and in this din that flies towards the sky of Paris after the last point. A gold medal and a bronze, in this sport increasingly popular among the Italians.
It all started with Sinner, world number one. Then the Italians noticed everyone, and there are so many of them. In the ATP live we have two Italians in the top 10, they become 4 in the top 40, 6 in the top 50, 9 in the top 100 tennis players in the world. The Americans are 10 but none in the top ten, the French 9. In the race, in the calendar year ranking, we get better positions. 4 tennis players in the women's ranking among the top 100 with Jasmine Paolini in fifth place in the ranking. In men's doubles Andrea Vavassori and Simone Bolelli Paolini and Errani are in the top 10 in women's doubles. The slogan comes to mind: that we want more from life.
And let's admit it, the matches of our “rackets” always have something mythological about them.
AND the case of the double women's world champion. You start badly, then you win in the long run, with the stubbornness of Paolini and Errani able to reverse the results (in fact, Paolini sometimes does it even in singles). And then… then these medals, these successes become legendary: if we want to use a sporting metaphor, like the 3-2 victory between Italy and Brazil in the 1982 World Cup. And so this sport, apparentlyeliteonce played by aristocrats and aristocrats in skirts and with plastic poses, becomes a mass sport. From the moment Jannick Sinner began to win, in the big sports stores there were many padel rackets on the shelves and fewer and fewer tennis rackets available. Tennis courts are increasingly booked, very young people choose to practice this sport that is becoming more and more popular, thanks to our boys and girls. Spectacular spectacular!
