Adriano Panatta to Paolo Bertolucci: “I could have played with Jannik Sinner, but instead…”

Adriano Panatta to Paolo Bertolucci: "I could have played with Jannik Sinner, but instead…"

Adriano Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci, two of the heroes of the 1976 Davis Cup who brought home the decisive point by winning the doubles match in Santiago, Chile against hosts Patricio Cornejo and Jaime Fillol, engaged in a hilarious dialogue at the ’within the podcast “The Phone Call” produced by Fandango, in which they comment on tennis matches, particularly those of Jannik Sinner and the Italian Davis Cup players, who will be engaged in the final against Australia today in Malaga.

Here is the text of their hilarious interview, significantly titled “Bombolo or Sinner”, reported by Corriere dello Sport, immediately after Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego’s doubles victory against Novak Djokovic and Miomir Kecmanovic that gave the Azzurri a historic return to the Davis final after 25 years.

Panatta: "If they make me get out of this c… de thing here, wait a second c… c’hai prescia? What do you have to do' "
Bertolucci: "Hello, did you get out of Rai? "
Panatta: "Who è? I do not recognize this voice, who è”.
Bertolucci: “It’s still me”
Panatta: “Ah, Bertolucci. You know the first thing I thought, especially in doubles? My whole life I played with Bombolo, instead I could play with Sinner, I mean; you realize? I could have played with Sinner who at least batted hard … at the net…”
Bertolucci: “Sì, if you were born 45 years later sì, you were born 45 years earlier, you only got that one thing wrong lì".
Panatta: "Maybe a little bit' more".
Bertolucci: "A little bit' more; sì. However, the boy took another step forward today. Becauseé this was the third set in ten days (with Djokovic, ed), it was an even set, they were playing the third set, man how he played this third set" 
Panatta: "Sì, forò in my opinion he did not play his best match today, becauseé he did not serve so well, he made a lot of unforced errors from the backcourt, then for goodness sake, he played very well eh, very well. Però in my opinion he played better the first time, when he beat Djokovic. We talk about small things in short".
Bertolucci: "Sì also becauseé if with little serve and some mistakes from behind he beats me Djokovic, you understand that in short. We are just on another level. He could also lose, forò now really è a millimeter from Djokovic. Thatè Djokovic comes in and you start from zero to zero, until four months ago, you would win a set and you were happy. Then è he entered the court on 0-1 eh, you have to put that too, if he lost you went home".
Panatta: "To him it doesné t make him neither hot nor cold that thing lì becauseé è so quiet".