At the weekend, three Italian tennis players will participate in a final of the Australian Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, the four most important and prestigious of the tennis season: on Saturday morning starting at 10:45 (according to the duration of the tournament). women’s final, scheduled on the same court) Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori will play to win the doubles title, while on Sunday at 9:30 Jannik Sinner will try to win the individual title, which is also the most prestigious.
It is a rather exceptional circumstance. Until now it had only happened twice in the history of tennis that in a “Slam” there were Italians in the final of both singles and doubles: the first in 1959, when Nicola Pietrangeli won Roland Garros (the Slam that is played between May and June in Paris) in singles and doubles paired with Orlando Sirola; the second in 2012, when again at Roland Garros in singles Sara Errani was defeated by the Russian Maria Sharapova, while in doubles with Roberta Vinci she won the title against the Russian couple formed by Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova.
In the two previous cases, the tennis player who reached the singles final was also part of the couple in the doubles final: this time, however, it is about three different tennis players, a fact that also has to do with the progressive discredit of doubles, less and less played by tennis players who excel in singles like Sinner.
Bolelli and Vavassori will face in the final the pair formed by the Indian Rohan Bopanna and the Australian Matthew Ebden, considered favorites: the two are currently second in the world doubles ranking and at the end of this tournament they will become first regardless of the result of the final. Bolelli, who is 38 years old, has already played in a Slam doubles final, winning the Australian Open in 2015 with Fabio Fognini. For Vavassori, 28, it is the first final of his career.
The two are the active Italian tennis players with the greatest specialization in doubles (besides Fognini, who however also had an excellent career in singles) and they started playing together recently, just last year. It is the fifth final for an Italian couple: in addition to the two victories in 1959 and 2015, there are two defeats, one in 1955 at Roland Garros and another in 1956 at Wimbledon (the Slam was played on grass in England). both remedied by the Pietrangeli-Sirola marriage.
However, the most talked about and most anticipated final is that of Sinner, the number 4 Italian tennis player in the world ranking who will face the Russian Daniil Medvedev, number 3 in the ranking, on Sunday. Until a few months ago, the precedents between the two were very unbalanced in favor of Medvedev, who had won 6 of the 6 matches played against Sinner. However, the Italian tennis player has had very evident growth in recent months, even in the strategies used during the matches, and has managed to beat Medvedev in the last three matches, adapting his game to the Russian’s style, taking better advantage of his weaknesses. .
Against Medvedev Sinner won the final of the Beijing and Vienna tournaments, both in October, and then in the ATP Finals in November, the tournament that closes the tennis season in which the eight best of the season compete. However, they were all very close matches and Sunday’s final is expected to be the same.
Sinner’s is the eighth men’s Slam final for an Italian tennis player. So far there have only been three victories, all at Roland Garros: two by Pietrangeli in 1959 and 1960 and one by Adriano Panatta in 1976. The most recent final, however, was Matteo Berrettini’s at Wimbledon in 2021, lost against Serbian Novak Djokovic . (whom Sinner beat on Friday in the semi-final).
– Read also: Some notable stats from Sinner’s win against Djokovic