The Italians have not all survived. Matteo Berrettini lost 6-2, 6-3 to Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday in 70 minutes, his sixth straight loss to a top-50 player. Lorenzo Sonego went down to Peruvian qualifier Ignacio Buse 6-3, 6-3 on the same afternoon. Two former top-30 Italians out before the seeds had unzipped a racquet bag. The Foro Italico has not been kind to the back end of the Italian top 100 this week.
The front end is doing better. Mattia Bellucci is into round two. Andrea Pellegrino — a qualifier — beat Luca Nardi in the all-Italian R1. Federico Cinà, 17, made his Masters main-draw debut on a wildcard, played well, and lost to Alexander Blockx. Twelve Italian men entered the singles draw. Eight of them are still in it on Friday morning. The depth is enormous; the survival rate is closer to representative.
Italian Open (Rome) — ATP
Round | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
R1 | Popyrin d. Berrettini | 6-2, 6-3 |
R1 | Machac d. Tsitsipas | 6-4, 7-6(4) |
R1 | Buse (Q) d. Sonego | 6-3, 6-3 |
R1 | Bellucci d. Burruchaga | 6-4, 6-4 |
R1 | Mpetshi Perricard d. Fearnley | 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-2 |
Italian Open (Rome) — WTA
Round | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
R1 | Eala d. Frech | 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 |
R1 | Andreescu d. Kenin | 6-4, 7-5 |
R1 | Maria d. Linette | 6-0, 6-3 |
R1 | Ostapenko d. Stefanini (WC) | 6-0, 6-1 |
R1 | Townsend d. Sramkova | 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 |
Cinà (17, WC) loses to Blockx but takes a set in his Masters main-draw debut — the youngest Italian on a Masters singles card in five years. Federation watching.
Ranking movers (ATP): Berrettini slides further outside the top 50, the lowest he has been in four years; Bellucci collects R2 points to push back into the top 90; Cinà earns his first ATP-level points; Cobolli holds at career-high; Sinner widens his points lead over Zverev whether he plays Friday or not.
Vondrousova absent: the 2023 Wimbledon champion was charged by ITIA in late April for refusing a December doping test, citing acute stress reaction tied to the late-night unidentified knock at her door. She has not played a WTA singles match since January.
Ranking movers (WTA): Eala into the top 60 if she advances tomorrow; Maria approaches top 70 with R2 points; Mboko on the cusp of top 8; Kostyuk's career-high climb interrupted by a hip withdrawal; Sabalenka's No. 1 lead steady, with Świątek (post-illness) entering today as the WTA's most-watched health question.
🎯 PICK 1 · FLAVIO COBOLLI · To reach Rome QF
Italian crowd, top-12 ranking, an Atmane R2 that is winnable on serve and on the rally. He has been on a deep-run curve since Munich, and Rome rewards exactly that profile.
🎯 PICK 2 · NAOMI OSAKA · To reach Rome R4
Quietly through the early rounds, no Sabalenka-tier opponent before R4, and a clay form that has been visibly more comfortable since Madrid. The path opens before she meets the seeds.
🎯 PICK 3 · MIRRA ANDREEVA · To win the Rome title
Three 1000 finals in the books, third one on Saturday in Madrid, and a Rome bracket that has Sabalenka, Rybakina, and Świątek (health permitting) all on the other half. Cleanest path in the WTA draw.
🎯 PICK 4 · JAKUB MENSIK · To reach Rome R4
Carrying last week's pick — the body is healthier than the recent results suggest, and a draw that does not stack tough seeds against him until R4 is the cleanest sliding-window value on the men's side.
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The Foro Italico's main court is named for a player almost no one watching it this week was alive to see compete. Nicola Pietrangeli won the Italian Open in 1957 and 1961, two French Opens in 1959 and 1960, and was for sixty years the high-water mark of Italian men's tennis — a country that, despite housing one of the great clay-court venues, took until 2019 to produce a Masters 1000 champion of its own. Fabio Fognini won that title at 31. Most Italians watching it wept.
The drought is over. Italy ended 2025 with the Davis Cup (three years running), the Billie Jean King Cup (two years running), the world No. 1 in men's singles, and a Rome trophy on Jasmine Paolini's mantelpiece — the first Italian woman to win it since Raffaella Reggi in 1985. The 2026 Foro Italico draw lists twelve Italian men in the singles, four of them in the top 20: Sinner at one, Musetti at ten, Cobolli at twelve, Darderi at twenty. Only the United States and Spain have produced four top-20 men at the same time at any point in the last two decades. Italy has them in May.
Luck did not produce this. The Federazione Italiana Tennis began a centralised junior development push from the Centro Tecnico Federale in Tirrenia in the early 2010s — coaching, stipends, regional academy partnerships, year-round national-team apparatus. Sinner came up his own way; Cobolli, Musetti, Darderi, Bellucci, and Cinà all came through Tirrenia. The bet was that depth precedes peaks. The depth arrived first. The peaks have followed.
What is unusual about the moment is its breadth. Spain in the 2000s had Nadal and a strong supporting cast; one transcendent player. The United States had the Roddick-Fish-Querrey years that never produced a Slam. France had a generation of perennial fourth-rounders. Italy in 2026 has Sinner at one, four more in the top twenty, Paolini defending Rome, Cocciaretto inside the top 50, a 17-year-old wildcard at his Masters debut, and the women's team that has just won two BJK Cups in a row. The country is not waiting for one player to age out before another arrives. It is producing them in batches.
Pietrangeli's court has waited for this for sixty years. Sinner walks onto it tonight. The wait is over.
Alexei Popyrin vs Matteo Berrettini Highlights | Rome 2026
Berrettini's sixth straight top-50 loss, in 70 minutes, on the court he most wants to win at.
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Tomas Machac Highlights | Rome 2026
Three sets in straights — top-20 form continues to be a generous description.
Alexandra Eala vs. Magdalena Frech | 2026 Rome Round 1 | WTA Match Highlights
The 20-year-old Filipina rallies from a set down for her first Rome career win.
Federico Cinà vs Alexander Blockx Highlights | Rome 2026
The 17-year-old Italian wildcard's Masters main-draw debut, opposite the breakout name of last week.
Italian Open (Rome) · May 6 – 17 · M1000 + W1000 · Outdoor clay · Foro Italico, Rome
Round 2 finishes through the weekend. Sinner debuts tonight vs Ofner; Djokovic plays Prizmic in his first match in two months; Musetti–Mpetshi Perricard headlines the night session. Sabalenka, Rybakina, Gauff, Świątek (health-permitting), Andreeva all begin their R2s this weekend.
On the horizon: Roland Garros (May 25 – June 8). The bridge is short — only two ATP 250 (Geneva, Bordeaux) and one WTA 250 (Strasbourg) between Rome and Paris.