Italy/tennis: "We were inspired by the French model, we are reaping the benefits" (A. Binaghi, FIT)

"Twenty years ago, we were inspired by the French model. We copied France and today the student has surpassed the master. In 2000, Italian men's tennis was in the third world: we didn't have a single player in the Top 100 and we were relegated to the third division in the Davis Cup. We changed things drastically twenty years ago and we are reaping the benefits today," said Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis Federation (FIT), to the French sports daily L'Équipe on 25/01/2022.

Italy, and the Federation Angelo Binaghi has chaired since 2001, has eight players in the Top 100 of the ATP rankings (as of 25/01/2022), including two in the Top 10 - Matteo Berrettini (world No. 7) and Jannik Sinner (No. 10) - who are playing in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on 25 and 26/01/2022.

"It is the SuperTennis channel (accessible via DTT and Sky Italia packages) that has caused a significant increase, not tennis success. Today, there are three times as many players as three years ago. We are at about 500,000. We are the only tennis federation that has its own television…