2024 closes exactly the same as 2023 ended, with the boys from Italy posing proudly with the Davis Cup Salad Bowl in the Martín Carpena, a fetish setting for the transalpine country. From one year to the next, same winner and same title; It is put again by the undeniable Jannik Sinner, who with the victory over Tallon Griekspoor (7-6(2) and 6-2) rounds off the success azzurro —Matteo Berrettini has previously fulfilled against Botic van de Zandschulp (6-4 and 6-2)— and rounds off a fantastic and historic week. Four days before, the women’s representatives celebrated the victory in the Billie Jean King Cup and got rid of the pain of last year, when they lost in the final against Canada. They got it right this time, so Italy shouts out loud: that’s right, today’s tennis is ours.
They won and they also won, 2-0 against the Netherlands, to give shape to a double that had only previously been achieved by the United States (1963, 1969, 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982), Australia (1964, 1965 and 1973), Republic Czech (2012) and Russia (2021). In this way, Italy continues to show off its muscle and underline the commitment it made a decade ago, when it began to decisively work on the base and sculpt a series of talents that today shine both as a group and individually. Sinner, without a doubt, is the jewel in the crown, a brilliant number one that seals a stratospheric season, completed with two greats, the command of the circuit and this icing on the cake of Davis, the competition that precisely gave him flight a year ago. Since then, victories and more victories, nine laurels and, above all, the feeling that not only have he and Alcaraz distanced themselves from the rest, but that they are also a couple of inches ahead of the Spaniard.
The ATP governor has won 29 of his last 30 matches and since he triumphed in Cincinnati in August, the only game in El Palmar has been able to stop him. It happened in the final in Beijing. Then, indoors, three more bellwether prizes: Shanghai, the Masters Cup and the Davis. Your country, then, is celebrating for the third time, after last year it put an end to the curse it had carried since 1976, when Chile succumbed. Holland does it now, a secondary that not only blurred Nadal’s farewell, but also reduced Germany and progressed to the outcome of the tournament. On this occasion, however, he had no option, since Van de Zandschulp lost against Berrettini – three out of three for the latter, splendid throughout the week – and Griekspoor’s deal with Sinner was little less than a pipe dream. .
He directs Italy from the offices, with Andrea Gaudenzi in the ATP presidential chair since 2020, and he also does so in the collective competitions of this final stretch, dyed entirely in blue. Suddenly, her tennis has found Jasmine Paolini, capable of reaching the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon at the age of 28, when until now she had not offered any notable clues, and she proudly displays her male diamond, which at the age of 23 He has already done the task that is required of every great champion; In the absence of a Davis, San Candido already has two, in addition to that Masters Cup that is so difficult to win and that not a few figures resisted; In this way, it unlocks the two coveted boxes and will burst into 2025 like a shot, although also with a huge amount of points to defend.
Without the need to push at all, simply waiting for his corrosive proposal to take effect and Griekspoor to fall like ripe fruit despite the ephemeral response of the second set, he sentenced the definitive series and certified the great moment of his nation, which today has six representatives in the top-50 of the ATP – nine in the top hundred – and celebrates again in Malaga. Riding the dizzying pace imposed by number one, well supported by Berrettini (28) and with the seasoning of a promising last batch, the Musetti (22), Cobolli (22) or Arnaldi (23) in the chamber, Italy dances again in Carpena and rises as the new power to beat. Only five teams had managed to retain the Salad Bowl: the United States, Sweden, Germany, Spain and, as a closer reference, the Czech Republic between 2012 and 2013. Today, it is clear, the helm is in the hands of the azzurri.
BERNARDES, ANOTHER ILLUSTRIOUS FAREWELL
This week Rafael Nadal ended his career and so does an illustrious referee with whom the Mallorcan had his ups and downs on occasion. Judge Carlos Bernardes, 59, ended his official career after more than 30 years and 8,000 matches supervising the matches from the top of the chair.
In the mid-eighties he became a line judge and in 1992 he joined the ATP circuit as a judge. The Brazilian has refereed 24 of the 29 players who reached the top, from Mats Wilander to Jannik Sinner according to the organization, and it was precisely he who controlled Nadal’s first professional match, in Mallorca (2002).
