The 关键字3Foro Italico (Italian Forum) has lived up to its name this past week as Jannik Sinner and Jasmine Paolini have given home fans a local hero to cheer for in both singles finals at the Italian Open.

Sinner can end a near five-decade wait for an Italian winner of the men's tournament in Rome, with Adriano Panatta way back in 1976 the last man to claim the title for a home player.

The world number one takes on rival Carlos Alcaraz in a blockbuster final for tennis fans who have watched Sinner return from his three-month doping ban for testing positive twice in March last year for traces of clostebol, a contamination doping authorities accept was accidental.

The 23-year-old was the first Italian to win a Grand Slam tournament since Panatta, again since 1976, when he won the Australian Open in January 2024.

He then became the first of his compatriots to claim top spot in the world rankings in June, and then the first to win the year-ending ATP Finals, claiming glory in Turin.

But Sinner, already a winner of 19 titles including three Grand Slams, is not alone at the top of the game as attested by Italy winning both the Davis Cup and, led by Wimbledon and Roland Garros finalist Paolini, the Billie Jean King Cup in 2024.

Italian men have won 31 ATP titles since the start of 2016, compared to just eight in the previous decade.

Lorenzo Musetti made his debut in the top 10 of the world rankings this week after reaching the Monte Carlo final last month and going deep in other tournaments, including a run to the semi-finals in Rome.

Nine Italian, including Luciano Darderi and Flavio Cobolli -- winners in Marrakech and Bucharest in the same week in March -- are in the men's top 100. Only the USA and France have more with 10 each.

At the start of the century the best Italian man was Andrea Gaudenzi at 54th in the world, who is the current president of the ATP, while the Italian men's team played in the third tier of the Davis Cup.

Italian tennis' revival began among its women, with four Fed Cup wins between 2006 and 2013, Francesco Schiavone's French Open title in 2010 and Flavia Pennetta's at the US Open five years later.

And Paolini is gunning for her first 100 series trophy against former US Open champion Coco Gauff on Saturday evening, the first in Rome for an Italian woman since Raffaella Reggi in 1985.

But after some good showing from Fabio Fognini who became the first Italian to win a Masters 1000 tournament, at Monte Carlo in 2019, men's tennis upped its game with the arrival of 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and Sinner.

"It's the result of 15 years of good work within the federation (FITP), starting from the clubs up to the top level and with a lot of international tournament in all ages groups," said Spanish former world number seven Emilio Sanchez, now a coach.

"They've decentralised the organisation of their youth structure. Before everyone had to go through a national training centre and be taken away from their home environment. Now the federation goes to the players, and funds them."

Filippo Volandri, the head of top-level men's tennis training for the FITP, says that the decentralisation, a wide network of coaches and access from a young age to both physical and mental trainers, allows "all young players to express their potential.

"That's the big difference between what we did before, when we saw that Italian players matured late or never reached their full potential," said Volandri.

The FITP, headed since 2001 by Angelo Binaghi, has also implemented a plan to build hard courts in a clay-court dominated country, a move which has also been accompanied by a change in playing style and training.

"We prioritise tactics over technique, and to serves and returns ahead of repetitive coaching of forehand or backhand strokes," Michelangelo Dell'Edera, the director of the FITP's Higher Training Institute, told AFP. AFP

• ·移动智能核酸采样亭操作标准流程
• ·海沧“本土十佳名小吃、荟萃十佳名小吃”出炉
• ·ปลาหมอคางดำ: สำรวจการแพร่ระบาดของปลาเอเลียนสปีชีส์ ในทะเลภาคตะวันออก
• ·物业品质经理述职报告范文
• ·合理利用智能垃圾分类设备倡导垃圾分类
• ·伊万:客战印尼难度大 期待国足有完美发挥+好运
• ·超有趣的自拍文案短句 调皮的自拍语录很好听
• ·中国女排大名单即将选拔产生 体能测试为重要依据
• ·无接触智能投递，各地垃圾分类“妙招”频出
• ·Deep sea craft filmed unprecedented footage of a colossal squid
• ·Aetherflux: Space solar startup aims for 2026 laser power demo
• ·南安诗山粕丸：肉馅软嫩酥脆不油腻 乡思团圆丸
• ·广东发布中高考食品安全提醒：忌盲目改变食物种类
• ·《生化危机9：安魂曲》正式公布 2026年2月发售
• ·国乒世界排名引热议！男双竟无缘前五，球迷喊话：请樊振东回来吧
• ·“全民健身 活力中国”飞盘系列赛深圳站圆满落幕