In a classic early November recap given exclusively to Sky Sport’s Federico Ferri – perhaps more eagerly awaited than the end-of-year press conference Giorgia Meloniwho also moved at the end of January -, Sinner Jannik he said that Nitto ATP Finals “it is the most important tournament of the year”. Only defending champions of the London Championship (as well as Australian Open and the Final itself) are capable of this kind of hyperbole. But perhaps he is right, considering that the growth of the event in Turin, as evidenced by the extraordinary public participation, is one of the additional phenomena of the new Italian tennis, summarized by Patrick Mouratoglou, the most famous coach as follows: “Many countries today envy your results and your system”.
The future of the Finals
The Inalpi Arena will again host the Final next year, then it will be Milan-Santa Giulia’s turn to fare better in comparison to Turin, an ideal continuation of the challenge that has been kept alive by industry and football throughout the post-war period but has been showing signs of fatigue for some time. Meanwhile, the thirty thousand (fifteen thousand for each of the two sessions) who packed the ViaPhiladelphia stands today had many reasons to be satisfied: for example, between the two singles won not without difficulty by Carlos Alcaraz against Alex de Minaur (6-5 6-2 in 102 minutes) and from Alexander Zverev on debutant Ben Shelton (7-3 7-6 in 94 minutes), a doubles match took place featuring Simone Bolelli and the home favorite as protagonists Andrea Vavassori. After entering the tournament with a narrow margin as the No. 7 seed, the future Davis Cup holders from Italy won in two sets, 7-5, 6-3, against the No. 1 pair in the rankings, England. Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool. The feeling is that this time the Bolognese and Turin players took advantage of the friendly support rather than being intimidated by it, as was the case here a year ago in the round robin when defeats were suffered against Germany’s Krawietz and Puetz and, most importantly, against Croatia’s Salvador Arevalo and Pavic. Bolelli teaches: You can learn even at 40 to be cooler, clearer and more determined. The opponents on Tuesday and Thursday will be of the same level as today: Spain’s Granollers and Argentina’s Zeballos, the number 3 seed, and, again, Krawietz and Puetz, 4.
Sinner against Auger-Aliassime
The day became livelier with collective chatter about who was not expected to take to the field today. Regarding Sinner, of course: on the eve of his debut against Felix Auger-Aliassime, he chose to train in the afternoon on the pitch of the Circolo della Stampa in via Agnelli. An hour of good dribbling with Maxim Mrva, 18 years old, Czech, one of the young men chosen by the ATP as a sparring partner. Obviously, there are trade-offs to be followed Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi. To those watching, the red-haired boy appeared on the ball and in excellent spirits, as – many whispered – the Australian coach would be by his side for another year.
Musetti Sunday
It was a tough Sunday for Lorenzo Musetti, fresh off a loss in the 250 final in Athens against Novak Djokovic. Carrarino, in addition to training, also underwent a mandatory shower and spoke with journalists. As he often does, he did not shy away from self-criticism: “I was chasing this Final too much and I didn’t enjoy much of it. Maybe I also handled the pressure badly, or I put too much pressure on myself.” So, “now I just want to enjoy this week, which is very important to me”. Debut in a few hours against Taylor Fritzdefeated three times in five matches. However, the most questioned in the press room and by the crowd was Nole: his last-minute withdrawal, although very welcome by those who had hoped for the historic presence of two Italians among the Final eight matches, revived rumors about his imminent farewell to the tennis game. There is no confirmation of this, in fact everything suggests that he wants to continue at least for 2026, with the aim of achieving another slam title – it would be his twenty-fifth – and to overtake Roger Federer in the ranking of those who have secured the most tournaments in his career: he is at 101, the Swiss at 103, while Jimmy Connors seems unattainable (109). However, if – as Novak explained yesterday and wrote by the doctor who filled out the ATP certificate – he does play in Greece in a precarious state of health, any decline in performance in the future could accelerate the decision to throw in the towel or opt for a highly selective calendar, with no more than a dozen commitments between the slams and the Masters 1000. And then there is the option for “after”: leaving Serbia for Greece as an indirect consequence of his criticism of the de facto government led by Aleksandar Vuciccontested in student protests, the last of the Fab Three will be called out loud, sooner or later, to take on the role of Lucio Quinzio Kuncinato, to save the homeland from the corruption that is increasingly being exposed.
