ROME.- While Jannik Sinnergreat favorite of the Rome Masters 1000collects titles at full speed, the Italian soccer team will continue its third from home World consecutive. The craze over tennis is shaking calcium from its throne as the undisputed king of sport in Italy.
This year, once again, the tournament Rome It has gained ground in football. Literally.
Crammed into its historic and somewhat dated headquarters of the Italian Forumthe Roman clay court tournament has once again spread to the neighbor Olympic Stadiumwhere the Rome and the lazio They play their matches at home and where the Nazionale receives their opponents from time to time.
This year, around 400,000 spectators are expected until May 17 at this expanded Foro Italico, a record attendance (393,000 in 2025).
For two years now, the last big date before Roland Garros occupies the Marmi Stadiumwith its 64 colossal white marble statues, at the foot of the Olympic Stadium, to build there a spectacular provisional track with 7,000 seats.
And its organizers, who in 2028 will have a covered and expanded central court (12,500 seats), dream of settling in the long term in the Olympic Stadium and its 70,000 seats.
For the president of the Italian Tennis Federation (FITP), Angelo Binaghithere is no longer a doubt that “tennis is surpassing football.”
Davis Cup dominator
This is already evident in terms of results. While the Italian soccer team, four-time world champion and two-time Europewill miss his third consecutive World Cup this summer, the number 1 on the planet, Sinner, has won the last five Masters 1000 (Paris in 2025, Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo and Madrid this year).
While no Italian club has made it past the quarterfinals in the Champions LeagueItaly has won the last three editions of the Davis Cup (in 2025 without Sinner) and in the women’s category, in 2025, the BJK Cupdriven by Jasmine Paoliniworld number 8 and defending champion in Rome.
This golden age of Italian tennis, in the midst of the calcium depression, is also reflected in the figures for federation licenses and television audiences.
The FITP, which also benefits from the enthusiasm for paddle tennis, claims 1.25 million members, 6.2 million practitioners and 19.1 million “followers”, which places it on the heels of football, with its 1.5 million members, 6.5 million practitioners and 23 million “followers”.
In November, the final of the ATP Finals in Turin between Sinner and Carlos Alcarazabsent this year in Rome due to injury, gathered seven million viewers in front of the television in Italy, which represented a screen share of 36.6%.
That same day, the Nazionale faced Norway in the qualifying phase for the 2026 World Cup and ‘only’ attracted 7.8 million viewers, with a lower audience share (33.5%).
“Ten years of hard work”
Since the wreck of the Nazionale at the end of March in the final of the European play-off against Bosnia and Herzegovina (1-1, 4-1 on penalties), there is talk of establishing tennis as a model to relaunch football, hampered according to observers by an obsolete and deficient youth training.
“Twenty years ago we were at the current level of football in terms of results,” he emphasizes. Michelangelo Dell’Ederadirector of FITP Coaches Training Institute.
Although it has been fortunate to have a generational phenomenon like Sinner, tennis carried out its revolution by changing its style of play (“from marathon tennis to speed tennis”), decentralizing its high-performance structures and expanding its base thanks to its 15,000 coaches (compared to 2,500 in 2000).
“Football has to be reborn in the clubs, completely reorganize the football schools, the training of coaches, which must be more in-depth and multifaceted,” lists Dell’Edera, who urges the tifosi to be patient.
“It will take ten years of hard work to reestablish football,” he warns.
Between now and then, it is possible that tennis will have surpassed football in popularity, as well as in number of members.
To achieve this, the omnipresent Angelo Binaghipresident of the FITP since 2001, has a pharaonic and almost unrealizable project: “to turn Rome into the fifth Grand Slam tournament.”
