Alberto Rimedio: His comments on Jannik Sinner are sparking debate among fans

RAI commentator Alberto Rimedio’s remarks about Jannik Sinner in an interview with TG1 Talks have sparked debate. The journalist from the public broadcaster highlighted RAI’s success during the World Cup in North America, comparing the viewership numbers to those of last year’s Wimbledon final between the Italian player and Carlos Alcaraz.

“There’s been a lot of talk—and rightly so—about Sinner’s great achievement. However, the Wimbledon final between him and Alcaraz in 2025 drew 6 million viewers. If Italy had reached the World Cup final, there would have been at least 20 million viewers; the Spain-Argentina match still drew 12 million. So the passion for soccer is deep-rooted—it’s part of our country’s culture. We can’t forget this fact; it’s not true that soccer in Italy has lost its following.”

Fans went wild on social media: “Rimedio boasting about beating Sinner in viewership is proof that soccer feels the heat, and how,” “It’s worrying that TV professionals even need to be told that comparing prime-time ratings on the flagship network with afternoon ratings on different channels makes no sense,” “What kind of comparison is a World Cup final with Sinner?”, “It’s in poor taste to mention Sinner this way,” “What the hell does that have to do with anything? Put Sinner or Antonelli on RAI,” “People working at public TV who don’t understand the impact it can have whether or not a given match is broadcast on RAI,” “It had twice the viewership of Sinner’s match because #RAI doesn’t know how to call tennis matches,” “Sinner’s final wasn’t even broadcast by RAI—what a f***ing comparison.”

Rimedio then defended commentator Lele Adani against the criticism: “When I hear criticism directed at Lele—which essentially amounts to exaggeration for some unknown purpose—what I want to emphasize is that he isn’t faking it. Obviously, to know that, you’d have to spend time with him. We practically lived in symbiosis for about 40 days—the duration of the World Cup—so I had the chance to get to know him even better. There’s no pretense; that’s just who he is.”