Leonardo Fioravanti follows in Jannik Sinner’s footsteps

Italian surfing has achieved a historic milestone: Leonardo Fioravanti, a 28-year-old from Rome, followed up his victory in El Salvador with another huge accomplishment by finishing second at the Rio de Janeiro event and reaching a feat no Italian had ever achieved before—the top of the World Surf League’s world rankings.

This milestone comes at the end of a perfect run of weeks, during which Fioravanti demonstrated consistency, maturity, and all-around skill that allowed him to defeat top-tier opponents, often right on their home turf. In Saquarema, a town north of Rio known for its beaches, he put together a solid performance, handling the ocean conditions flawlessly. The stage victory slipped away at the very last moment, but that didn’t change the bottom line: Italy has a new world number one.

The parallel with the world’s number one tennis player, Jannik Sinner, comes naturally: Fioravanti, just as the South Tyrolean is doing, is rewriting the landscape of his sport and demonstrating, at the same time, that Italian talents can hold their own even against Brazil’s great tradition (athletes from the South American country occupy positions two through five in the rankings). Like Sinner, Fioravanti’s rise is the result not of chance but of a well-defined path.

Overtaking Italo Ferreira—a local hero in Saquarema and a highly accomplished champion—in the rankings symbolizes a profound shift: Fioravanti is no longer a surprising rising star, but is now the benchmark on the circuit. The yellow jersey worn by the World Surf Tour leader is the definitive confirmation of this.