As Enzo Ferrari once said: Italians will forgive you anything — except success. It’s just in our DNA. In Italy, success comes with terms and conditions. Always has, always will. Rule number one: you better start apologising.
We’ve advised Valentino Rossi from the sofa, debated Baggio’s penalty for three decades, and blamed Ferrari’s pit stops from our kitchen tables. So, we couldn’t have asked for anything juicier than the first Italian ever reaching No.1 in the ATP rankings to unleash the next very Italian kind of hysteria.
Sinner — methodical, unflinching, almost ascetic — is an unlikely national darling. Reserved, composed, low-profile, with the aura of a Riace bronze. Naturally, we adore him. Naturally, we tear him apart.
This year, for the first time, he was not the only Italian at the Finals in Turin. Lorenzo Musetti — all flair and fire, an easy crush for anyone, with a one-handed backhand that belongs in a museum.
One is alpine discipline, the other Mediterranean passion. Together, they are drawing a new silhouette of Italian men’s tennis.
The message is clear: this isn’t a solo act. It’s a movement. Tennis isn’t just being played — it’s being watched. Live events like Rome and Turin now generate over €1 billion in combined economic impact. Turin alone — candidate to host the ATP Finals until 2030 — has already added more than €300 million to the local economy.
These aren’t side effects of a passing trend, they’re structural shifts. And despite the coffee bar chatter, the tweets, the think pieces — when one of these guys steps onto the court at Inalpi Arena, the country shows up. It doesn’t hold back.
The noise here is a different one. It’s not just a one-week infatuation. It’s starting to look like something that will last decades.
Martina Rosati is a photographer, writer, architect and designer who is based in London and Turin.
