Italian Tennis and Padel Federation: focuses on training young people

Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti first, then Matteo Arnaldinow too Luciano Darderi, Flavio Cobolli, Luca Nardi: Italian tennis is full of extraordinary young people. There Nardi’s victory on Novak Djokovic, in the third round of Indian Wells, it is just the latest demonstration of personality, talent and dedication of a young exponent of our movement: all the players mentioned were born in the new Millennium and, with the imminent addition of Luca, they are among the top 100 players in the world. Young talents who confirm, once again, the state of health of our tennis, with kids who manage to impose themselves at every level: think also of what the Junior Davis Cup expedition did, with the final played at the end of 2023 under the guide by Nicola Fantone. What are the secrets of these extraordinary successes?

TRAINING AND COMPETITION

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Among the main reasons for this golden era of Italian tennis there is clearly training, right from the first years of activity. An always delicate topic, in this sense, is that of youth competition: how important is the result in itself, when we are talking about very young tennis players to be trained? The line of Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, in this sense, is clear: not much. The vision is in fact to make people compete boys and girls at the same level, thus avoiding an imbalance between the tennis players facing each other. The most important thing among the Unders today it’s no longer about winning games, but to train properly for the high-level future. A real revolution compared to what philosophy was until a couple of decades ago.

THE SYSTEM

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But how is the system structured? We start from the regional circuits and then continue with another circuit with always very crowded stages (the Kinder) and with the national Master in Rome in July. To rise further, two other circuits of fundamental importance: lo Junior Next Gen Italy and the Road to Turinreserved for Under 12s and 14s (the Junior Next Gen, also for Under 10s), to close with the space reserved for Under 16s and Under 18s: the Super Next Gen. Going into concrete terms, in these days, the first stage of the process is taking place Junior Next Gen Italywhich began on Friday 8 March: the tour is divided into five macro areas and concerns Under 10, 12 and 14. The news is the number of participants, increasing, from 1680, in the first stage of 2023, to 1931 today.

THE BOOM FOR WOMEN

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In particular, there is a real boom among women, with numbers doubling compared to last season. The second stage will be staged during the Easter holidays (28 March – 7 April), while the third stage will be played in the federal summer centres, contexts in which the competition will therefore be combined with the training moment: the tournaments, in this case, will they will take place in four locations (Castel di Sangro, Brallo, Fiuggi and Serramazzoni): in this way waiting lists are avoided and everyone can play. Finally, in October there will be the last stage where we will determine who will participate in the final Master during the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

The greatest

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Unlike the Junior Next Gen, the Road to Turin circuit allows children born in odd years to play: two stages on the calendar, at the end of September and the end of October, for Under 11 and Under 13. While Under 16 and Under 18 have been merged on the board Super Next Gen “We have therefore built a second web of security so that the Sonego and Berrettini of the future can continue to be followed by the federal technical sector, attentive not only to the activity of the best ITFs, but also to that of those who yesterday were second tier but which then proved their worth in the top areas” underlines Michelangelo Dell’Edera, director of the Roberto Lombardi Higher Training Institute.