Sinner and Alcaraz. Alcaraz and Sinner. One stronger on cement, the other on earth. The most continuous and tennis Italian, the Spaniard capable of touching unexplored peaks but, words of his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, who knows if really ready for the sacrifices necessary to achieve immortality. The first since he climbed the throne left the crumbs on the road, winning 53 matches and losing 4, the second has no longer approached the top since September 2023, despite having raised two Wimbledon and a Roland Garros in the meantime.

The new rivalry

The final of the International of Italy has rekindled the rivalry 4.0 of tennis. After Federer-Nadal and the Triumvirate Federer-Nadal-Djokovic, today the best comparison between different styles is that between the blue phenomenon and Murcia’s talent. In Paris they will be the first two standard heads and it is reasonably difficult to imagine a different winner from them. The student of Ferrero has shown that, set aside slaughter and play of superfluous applause, on red is the player to beat. Variety, trajectories, accelerations, net descents, touch: the sample to impose itself again in the red cathedral is complete. The question mark is the pressure of being the favorite: will it be able to manage it? In the months without Jannik he only succeeded in flashes.

Carlitos then won the last four precedents against Sinner, two on the cement and two on Earth, and leads 6-4 in direct clashes. At the Slam level, the Spaniard is always in front (2-1), thanks to the successes in the semifinal of Paris 2024 and in the quarterfinals of the US Open 2022, against Sinner’s victory only at Wimbledon 2022. The final won in two sets at the Foro Italico must not however deceive: Alcaraz is the best on Earth, but Sinner is immediately behind him. 104 days without playing an official match, from the Australian Open final against Zverev in the second round of Rome with the Argentine Navone. Darren Cahill said well: overcoming expectations has become normal for Jannik Sinner, but what is doing of his career is far from normal. Returning to a 1000, on the surface less congenial to him, and immediately getting to play the title, complete with two consecutive sets against a player born to dominate on the red, is stuff from Martian.

At the Bois de Boulogne Sinner it will arrive prepared and with a precise strategy if Alcaraz is facing again. The feeling is that all the other 126 players on the scoreboard can make him tickle or a lot. Three out of five sets is another sport, but also in Rome we have seen the treatment that Jannik reserves to the immediate pursuers. Ruud had just won the Madrid Masters 1000 and has not yet understood what has passed on. In fact, the selections have been open to the role of third inconvenient. Zverev by age and pedigree seemed the ideal candidate, but as soon as he presents himself a chance. Rune has talent and physicality, but it is not understood which technical project is carrying out: for him few high and too many bass. Instead, Jack Draper and Lorenzo Musetti are coming to great falters. Growing up together in the Junior circuit, they needed more time to form compared to Sinner and Alcaraz: they still remain behind, but the gap has reduced. So much to win a slam? We will see. But Draper and Muse’s game peaks are top five. For the first time, Novak Djokovic is very past headlights. The curriculum imposes absolute deference, but winning the Roland Garros at 38 would be his largest and most unexpected feat.

We are the best

The Masters 1000 in Rome has confirmed what was collected in the last 18 months: we are the strongest tennis movement in the world. They are all recent successes and placements, but it is necessary to remember them: the three Sums of Sinner, the two finals in Paris and London of Paolini, the bronze of Musetti and the gold of Jasmine in pairs with Errani at the Paris Olympics, the triumphs in Malaga in Davis and Billie Jean King Cup. This is the summit, but the results of Arnaldi, Sonego, Darderi, should not be forgotten. Bronzetti, Cocciaretto, of the Bolelli-Vassori couple and some flashes of Berrettini, who if he arrives unscathed at the weeks on the meadows can return to being that player able to beat anyone.

After a “tennis player” pope, a tournament in Rome where the Azzurri thrilled in three out of four scores with a monopoly in the ATP charts (we have number 1 and 8) and WTA (Paolini is again fourth), probably at the tennis of our house remains to be scaled only more the leaders of NASA, the European Parliament and the UN: everything else, when it comes to the racket, is our deal.

That growth

The first vagites of great tricolor tennis, in the men’s field, arrived in 2018 (Cecchinato, Roland Garros), but it is with the rise of caps that the bar has risen: final in Wimbledon and semifinals in New York and Melbourne. In this context, both those who came from the rear (Sonego) has blossomed, and the lucky nidiata of 2001-2002 of which, those who bud the youth tournaments, have always said a lot of good.

Then you also have to thank the stork, because a sinner happens to you once every fifty years, if you are lucky, and an arm like that of Musetti perhaps even more.

The most difficult part, however, for those who administer Italian tennis arrives now. This is not only the moment of the harvest, but also the one in which to lay the foundations for those who will have to change this generation of phenomena in a dozen years. Spain in this sense is perhaps the nation that since the 1980s has been able to regenerate with greater continuity and success of all the others. Nadal and Alcaraz are the gifts of the sky, but the various Moya, Brugura, Ferrero, Emilio Sanchez, Ferrer and Berastegui represent the signal of a model that works in the long run regardless of the interpreters.

Today we have the number 1 in the world, the number 4 and a player who has freed himself of the very talented label to become that champion who has always been destined to be. 20 years ago the situation was very different, especially in the men’s field. The first Italian was Filippo Volandri, who in 2005 would then have closed the season as 39th player in the ATP ranking, with Davide Sanguinetti (today Rybakina coach) immediately behind the number 43, while Seppi (69) and bracelets (73) closed the blue troop in Top 100 Bolelli (59) and Lorenzi (94). In the last ranking we don’t only have the man on the run with red hair, but eight other players in the top 100.

Not just Sinner

Jasmine Paolini has succeeded in yet another miracle of her career. Closing with a super coach like Renzo Furlan – whoever decides to take it in the coming months will make a deal – and win equally. It must be said that in his corner, next to Sara Errani, no one sits, but Marc Lopez, a trushed collaborator of Nadal in the last years of his career and gold medal in double with the Majorcan in Rio 2016. With Iga Swiatek in crisis of results, on the eve of Roland Garros there is no player who knows how to play on red like our Jasmine.

Sinner’s final has partially obscured the umpteenth sumptuous path of Lorenzo Musetti. It is true that against Alcaraz took the field with a wrong mood, which often happens to him when there is wind, but the next number 7 in the world (better than him in Italy only Sinner, Panatta and Berrettini) has become the ninth player in history capable of reaching the semifinals in all three Masters 1000 on the red in the same season, as well as the first born from 2000 onwards.

If in Paris he manages not to load with too many pressures, he may be the outsider who from the third row surprises everyone and crosses the finish line first.