ROME \u2013 Angelo Binaghi has dragged Italian tennis from the doldrums to a golden age since taking charge of the country\u2019s federation (FITP) a quarter of a century ago, with Jannik Sinner just the very best of some of the world\u2019s top players.<\/p>\n
But the organiser of the Italian Open, which runs in Rome until May 17, has an even bigger goal \u2013 breaking what he calls the Grand Slam monopoly and hosting a fifth Major tournament in his home nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe monopoly is scandalous and is a big handicap for tennis,\u201d Binaghi said in an interview with AFP and the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a scandal that there is no meritocratic system, instead the system protects those who don\u2019t do as much as they could for tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are four countries in the world that have a mountain of money to invest in tennis that other nations don\u2019t have. I\u2019m trying to break that monopoly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binaghi insists that Italy is the place to host a fifth Slam given the explosion in popularity of the sport in recent years, pushed by the likes of Sinner and Jasmine Paolini, reigning women\u2019s champion here in Rome.<\/p>\n
The 65-year-old said he was willing to organise the eventual tournament \u201canywhere in Italy and on any surface\u201d, but he was vague on the practicalities of creating a new Slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cTennis is experiencing the sort of boom that will be difficult to replicate in the future, right at the time when our national football team is going through a disastrous period,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes our successes all the more important for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binaghi suggested that his proposed tournament would not be held at the Foro Italico where the Italian Open has blossomed into one of the tennis calendar\u2019s most prestigious events.<\/p>\n
The centre court in the Italian capital is set to have a retractable roof and an increased capacity of 12,500 by 2028. <\/p>\n
But Binaghi said that the area around the grounds, which also houses the Stadio Olimpico where football clubs Roma and Lazio play their home matches, presents challenges for a Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe existing site poses a number of problems: there is no metro stop, barely any buses, and it\u2019s difficult to find taxis,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the most beautiful place to play tennis in the world, but it generates a mountain of extra costs. Every single structure apart from the centre court, has to be put up and then dismantled, and that weighs on the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his tenure, he added: \u201cWhen I took over the FITP, the Italian Open was dead (…) tennis was the tenth or twelfth sport in Italy, we had no money, we had no players, we had nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a hundred times more difficult to make the Italian Open what it is today than it would be to complete the final step needed to get a Grand Slam. As long as I am in charge, I will try to achieve it… And if we don\u2019t succeed, tennis will miss a unique opportunity that no-one else will have for the next 100 years.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROME \u2013 Angelo Binaghi has dragged Italian tennis from the doldrums to a golden age since taking charge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-657012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}