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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Goodbye to summer hard-court. Now this bizarro 2020 season truly begins to bend the tennis calendar. Clay season is upon us—it probably started before Dominic Thiem climbed out of his post-Open ice bath—and all of a sudden, I’ve got Italy on my mind. A few nations seem to be hoarding the future of the ATP. Russia has three guys in the top 15, and they look like they’ll linger there for a long time. Canada’s pair of all-court killers, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, are bumping elbows in the top 20 as of this week. And regarding this week in Rome, it’s the locals having all the fun. Not just world No. 8 Matteo Berrettini, who fully broke through last season and has cleared the third round in Rome without much fuss. It’s the teens making all the noise against top seeds. Jannik Sinner took down Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets, while Lorenzo Musetti beat both Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori—not too shabby for the first two tour-level wins of his life.