When we talk about famous Italian tennis players, we must make a distinction between the past and the present.
The times of Andrea Gaudenzi, Andreas Seppi, and Filippo Volandri are gone, in 2022 a new wave of talent is coming up.
Italy built a great structure, and the tournaments present in the country are growing each year.
Said so the potential in both men and women level with these structures and planning behind them is great.
The most famous names now are the ones of Sinner, Berrettini, Musetti, and Sonego while for the WTA Giorgi, Paolini, Trevisan, and Bronzetti are the most recognized talents.
5 Famous Italian Male Players
As of the end of 2022, if we talk about Italian ATP players the country has plenty of will analyze below.
1. Jannik Sinner
The Italian player from San Candido, a town that is famous for skiing and snow not for tennis was born in 2001 so he’s 21 years old in 2022.
Previously the most famous person in his hometown was Kurt Sulzenbacher a decent athlete in the international ski sport.
Jannik Sinner started to play tennis professionally quite late at the age of 9 while at 8 years old he even won a junior championship in the slalom discipline.
He wasn’t sure which discipline to choose till he realized that a tennis match is much longer than a ski event, hence more entertaining for him.
In his first years, he played around the region where he’s from, Trentino Alto Adige, bordering the Austrian territory, and later on, at 14 he moved to a club in Liguria to have the opportunity to join Piatti’s academy, the famous coach who was also in the teams of Djokovic, Coric, Raonic, Gasquet.
Since then, Sinner moved up in the ranking and start to collect success at a very early age. He won the tournaments in Sofia twice in 2020 and 2021, Melbourne 250 in 2021, Anversa in 2021, Washington 50 in 2021, and Anversa also in 2021.
His best ranking is in October 2021 when he reached the 9th position in the world ATP in November 2022, still the best Italian ahead of Berrettini. He’s one of the youngest players to win tournaments and he won even the next Gen final vs De Minaur in 2019.
See also: Jannik Sinner Analysis
2. Matteo Berrettini
The player is from the capital of Italy, Rome. Matteo Berrettini is probably the most known Italian player around the world for his good-looking figure and his final at Wimbledon in 2021 against Djokovic.
Matteo didn’t win any Slam so far however in his career, at 26 years old, it looks to be at his peak. He’s known as The Hammer, played in 2 Slams semifinals at Us Open and the Australian Open and the final at Wimbledon as we’ve mentioned before.
His statuary figure standing at 196 cm height helps him to support his powerful service, his best shot.
He also won 7 ATP titles, the most important ones at Queen’s which he always described as his favorite tournament of the year behind Wimbledon.
He’s a grass player as his characteristics suit the fast surface and his serve is more valuable here rather than on clay.
He started his career playing basketball and swimming while later moving to tennis at the age of 8 years old, with his brother playing an important part in this decision. His favorite player of all time is John McEnroe while he’s very passionate about basketball, with Le Bron James the player he admires the most.
His best ranking was number 6 in the world in 2021 while Nov 2022 his number 15 ATP just 1 place behind fellow Italian Jannik Sinner.
See also: Matteo Berrettini Analysis
3. Lorenzo Musetti
The tennis player above, and probably the biggest thing behind Sinner is Lorenzo Musetti. He is still very young, born in 2002 being 20 years old in 2022.
His tennis passion grew in Carrara a small city in Tuscany he reached the best result of his career at the Junior Australian Open in 2019, winning at the super tie-break in the final against the pupil of Ivan Lendl, Emilio Nava.
Since then Musetti got attention worldwide but his career at an early age started differently.
He first started to train at his grandmother’s basement and found out he liked tennis. Then another Italian ex-player, Filippo Volandri decided to invest in him and coach him first.
Soon after, Musetti had the opportunity to be coached by Mouratoglou, the famous coach who is also sharing his services with Stefanos Tsitsipas and Serena Williams.
Lorenzo Musetti as in 2022 won already 2 ATP titles, the most important at Hamburg in the final against the new number1 in the world, Carlos Alcaraz.
He’s targeting a ranking in the top 10 in 2022, however he will still need to improve many parts of his game to do so.
In November 2022 his ranking is 24 while his best ranking was 23, in October 2022 when he was beaten in the final at the ATP Naples, a home tournament, the fellow Italian, Matteo Berrettini.
See also: Lorenzo Musetti analysis
4. Lorenzo Sonego
Lorenzo Sonego is number 4 in the ATP ranking for Italy however he improved his game lately with some great tournaments.
He was born in Turin in 1995 and he’s 27 years old, at the peak of his career in terms of age. His favorite surface is clay where he achieved also some top ATP 250 winnings at Antalya, Cagliari, and Moselle.
He started his career at 11 years old with the same coach that he still has still in 2022, Gipo Arbino, and won his first Challenger tournament in 2017, at Ortisei.
Since then Sonego with his obstinacy continues to elevate his level of tennis and gain positions in the ranking. He was part of the last team of Italy during the Davis Cup in November, he might be a reserve of Sinner and Berrettini in the semifinals in Malaga.
In 2020 he reached the eighth-finals at Roland Garros and in Wien in 2021 he managed to reach the final beating even Novak Djokovic on the way to the last match of the tournament which he lost.
His style is the one of a baseline defender and the clay is the perfect surface for extended rallies.
In November 2022 he’s 47 in the ATP ranking while number 21 was his career best in October 2021.
5. Fabio Fognini
The oldest of the Italian players mentioned above is Fabio Fognini, born in Sanremo, the city worldwide famous for its singing contest is now 35 years old in 2022.
He’s fasting approaching the sunset of his long career. He started his career at the local tennis club of Sanremo and reached the top 10 positions in 2019, reaching the eighth-finals at Roland Garros.
In 2019, a golden year for him he reached the first Master title won at Montecarlo in the final against Lajovic, following a great semifinal where he beat the king of clay, Rafael Nadal.
He’s the first Italian to win a Master 1000 in the history of tennis. He will remember the beginning when he won the European U16 championship being the underdog against Radic in 2005, in Murcia.
In 2011 he won the tournament of Stuttgart and Hamburg on the grass even if his style suits better the clay.
Fognini since then continue with great performances on different surfaces and got other results with 5 ATP wins of which 3 in doubles with his partner, Bolelli. They are still the main Italian players for the double and they will try to beat Spain in the upcoming semifinal in Malaga in November 2022.
Fognini is also infamous all over the tournaments as being a player who complains quite a lot, breaks racquets if the decision doesn’t suit him, and does a lot of drama on the courts. He has received during his career a total of above 150 000€ with sanctions even at Wimbledon.
In 2022 he’s still married to Flavia Pennetta a great ex-tennis player as well who reached number 6 in the WTA as best ranking and won the Fed Cup 4 times with Italy. She is retired since 2015.
3 Famous Italian Women Tennis Players
1. Camila Giorgi
The Italian, part-time model, Camila Giorgi was born in Macerata in 1991, so she is 31 years old in 2022. One of the most beautiful tennis players of all time she achieved great results on the court as well.
Camila Giorgi detained the record for most wins against the top 10 players won vs Sharapova, Swiatek, Wozniaki, Azarenka, and Muguruza, all players that reached the number 1 in the world during their career.
Camila started her career playing at 5 years old, following a decent career in gymnastics.
At 9 years old, one of the most famous coaches in the world, Nick Bollettieri proposed her a contract with IMG. But despite it being very good for an athlete of that age the family rejected the offer as the constant travel would affect too much her life at such an early age.
In 2001 Lotto the first contract signed with them, in 2001 she lives in Spain before moving to Paris in 2004 where she will stay till 2009 before moving to Miami. She will come back to Italy in 2013 at the age of 22 years old.
All this traveling helped her to see the different coaching approaches and she improved a lot in her all-around game. She won her first title at Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands and became the second Italian player of all time to win a title on grass, following Roberta Vinci.
In 2019 she won the second WTA title in Linz and became the best-ranked Italian women’s player.
The year 2021 was the best one for Camila with the eight finals at the Olympic games of Tokyo, the win at the WTA in Montreal, and the return in the best 35 in the WTA ranking.
Her best ranking is number 26 in the world while in November 2022 she is number 69.
2. Martina Trevisan
Born in 1993 Martina Trevisan is November 2022 the best-ranked Italian female player in an activity.
Her mum was a tennis coach while her father is an ex-football player, so her family lived and breathed sport from a young age.
Florence is her hometown hence from a young age, being a big city in Italy she had a lot of possibilities for training and changing academies without leaving her hometown.
She won 1 WTA title at Rabat in 2022 and 10 ITF titles in her career. Her best result for sure is at the Roland Garros where she played against the next-gen Gauff who is a great player coming up in the WTA ranking.
In November 2022, she is 28 in the ranking while her best ranking all time was number 24.
She is a left-handed player and most of the danger with her style of play is done with the cross forehand which is particularly difficult to return for right-handed players.
3. Lucia Bronzetti
Lucia Bronzetti was born in Rimini in 1998 hence she’s 24 years old in November 2022. She’s having her best career ranking of all time being the 3rd Italian player in order in the WTA.
Her career started at the seaside of Rimini, a famous riviera city in Italy where many challengers are held every year. She started to play tennis full-time as soon as she finished high school, at 19 years old.
In 2003 she lays her first pro tournament in Umago and the same year she won her first tournament. This gave her confidence to continue the path taken previously to not restart her studies.
She is part of the academy in Turin and the year 2021 was great for her to show to the public that she is ready to rise in the ranking.
Great results arrived in Slovenia and Palermo and she reached 3 quarter finals participation in WTA tournaments within 2 months. She gets her best results on clay which is the surface where she mostly trained when in Italy and the one where she had the best results from a young age.
In November 2022 she is seen as the future of WTA tennis in Italy.
Her ranking is 56 in November 2022 and it’s also the best ranking she ever had.
Wrap up
All in all, Italy at the moment, especially for the male side is one of the most advanced countries in terms of coaching, development, and tournaments in the world.
The United States and France had their cycle a few years back and Spain looks like the one able to maintain the same level as Italy.
Out of all Sinner, Musetti, and Bronzetti for the women look to be the top Italian players in the tennis circuit.
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