Massimo Gramellini drastic on the different treatment between Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti
Massimo Gramellini has returned to the subject of Jannik Sinner, this time pointing out the different press, media, and social treatment between the world number one and Lorenzo Musetti after both renounced the Davis Cup. “Musetti’s renunciation of the Azzurri jersey did not produce the hailstorm of outrage that Jannik Sinner”’s similar decision a few days earlier had elicited, noted the Corriere della Sera journalist in his column “Gramellini’s Coffee”.
“Not only did hardly anyone hold the Monte Carlo residence against him, but many appeared sympathetic toward his choice (…), pretending not to remember that the reasons given by Sinner were also strictly personal”.
Gramellini tried to explain what this difference in treatment depends on: “I think on the fact that Musetti is called Musetti and not Musetten. Nobody continually asks a Tuscan like him for a blood test to certify his Italian-ness. Instead from the South Tyrolean Sinner, as from the Afro-descendant Egonu, the proof of love is demanded every time. Translated: if Musetti renounces the national team it is because he is tired. Whereas if Sinner gives it up, it is because he is foreign”.
“In order to feel accepted as a compatriot, it is not enough for a border or second-generation Italian to be Italian– concluded Gramellini. He must continually prove that he is. Yet, Italy was made by an outlier whose last name was Cavour, and who spoke, and even thought, in French”.
