Top successes drive the grassroots movement: the number of people picking up a racket has grown fivefold
Tennis finally leaves the clubs, takes off the sport of the wealthier classes and becomes a mass phenomenon. It’s 1976, Panatta wins the Internationals, then Roland Garros and at the end of the year he leads Italy to what until yesterday remained the only Italian triumph in the Davis Cup. He and his companions Bertolucci, Barazzutti and Zugarelli are the new stars of the magazines and in those days all the children ask their parents for a racket as a gift. But the Italian movement does not possess the economic strength, structures and organization to ride the boom and exploit the long wave of that popularity and those successes.
the revolution
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Just 15 years later, in 2001, the Italian national team was relegated to Serie B (and two years later we even ended up in Serie C), the Internazionali d’Italia, our most prestigious tournament, risked being downgraded or even moved abroad and as of December 31st the best Italian in the rankings is Andrea Gaudenzi, n.54. A picture of rubble that requires a revolution. In the federal elections of that year, a former player and then industrial manager, Angelo Binaghi, came to embody it. As the newly elected president, there are two key points of the program: on the one hand, saving the Internationals, a showcase capable of creating turnover and attracting investments; on the other, create a technical structure that can continuously create top-level players among men (the women win two Slams and 4 Fed Cups, in the meantime), because if it is true that the champion is sent from heaven, the base can be definitely build. And without the push of a champion, organizational efforts also risk remaining sterile. And so, the federal centers of Tirrenia (men) and Formia (women) were born and in 2015 the federation decided to increase its presence across the national territory in a widespread way, introducing dozens of intermediate centers that children can start attending as children : the provincial aggregation centers for ages 8 to 10, then the peripheral training centers for ages 11 to 15 and finally the peripheral technical centers for those over 16. In practice, today there are no children, even from the smallest and most peripheral club , which does not end up under the eyes of a federal technician. Alongside the fundamental recovery of collaboration with private technicians, the structure is starting to bear fruit, expanding the audience of international level players, while Cecchinato’s semi-final at Roland Garros in 2018 and Fognini’s victory in Monte Carlo in 2019 demonstrate that even in Italy, great results can finally be achieved, with a cascade effect on the many young promises who are starting to appear on the stage that counts, i.e. the Berrettinis, the Sinners, the Sonegos and the Musettis who are now celebrating a historic success.
President
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The birth of Supertennis, the federal TV channel, in 2008 has a decisive impact on growth: because it disseminates and gives visibility to tennis, broadcasts the matches and builds the loyalty of fans. And so, 22 years after that fateful 2001, with the Internationals extended to 11 days, the Finals in Italy until at least 2025, the national champions in Davis and Sinner beating Djokovic twice in 12 days, the numbers are certainly those of a triumph: membership rose from 129,000 to 660,000, practitioners from 1.3 to 4.5 million, teachers from 1700 to 12,000, Fitp employees from 45 to 198 for a turnover of 173.6 million. And President Binaghi is now starting to like the role of revolutionary: “Now let’s see if President Malagò will find the time to compliment us: in all these months, despite these organizational and sporting successes, he has never found the strength to do so. fall of style”. The Coni no.1 had celebrated the team with a tweet: “Italian tennis writes history by returning to dominate the world, 47 years after the only victory of the trophy. Applause to our champions, led by a stratospheric Sinner and captained by Filippo Volandri, and to President Binaghi’s Federtennis”. Who previously said: “We are proud, the success of this group is the snapshot of a movement which in these twenty years has grown thanks to targeted political choices and investments in the technical sector which are now bearing fruit. We have broadened our base, increased practitioners and members, hired employees, collaborators, teachers, referees. We have increased the number of tournaments organized in our territory, which have allowed our young people to grow. We have learned to organize large international events. We have made massive investments in schools, with the project Racquets in the classroom which reaches 400,000 children and aims to reach one million with another eight million euros invested”. And with the push of the Sinner phenomenon, the sky is the limit now.
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