Angelo Binaghi looks beyond Jannik Sinner
The words of Angelo Binaghi
The president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation Angelo Binaghi spoke at the press conference presenting the Masterplan of the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. "Today I am playing ahead of the game and talking now about the possible renewal of the ATP Finals in Italy for the next five years. These have been important months in which we have been busy on the sports side to follow the exploits of our boys first and our girls later, but they have also been challenging from the organizational point of view. We have had excellent feedback, the most important one of which we are most proud è a convinced support from our government that stimulates us even more to move forward. In these days we are finalizing our discussions with our most important partners and sponsors, we are confident that we will have an answer soon and that in our weeks we will be able to formulate our best proposal to the ATP. We continue to be very confident and aim to succeed in keeping the Atp Finals in Italy for another five years".
"We were reminiscing with President Gros-Pietro about the early beginnings when in 2018, we decided to attempt the climb to'Everest. We knew little about these Nitto Atp Finals, we had been to London but it was something much bigger than us. We did not know its scope, effects and impact, which we saw in its entirety last year when the Nitto Atp Finals was the most important indoor event in the entire history of Italian sports, and I think the impacts can also be seen from this year's data. To date we have, compared to last year's record, a pre-sale of tickets more than double on the same date, but most importantly we have an average site fill rate that is close to 90 percent. We are three and a half months away from the start of the event, normally a big event starts selling tickets around this date, we have some sessions such as the finals that are already approaching sold out".
"On the other hand, also from a technical point of view, in 2018 our best player was No. 20 in the world and during the first edition of the Finals he would have been 34 years old. The combination of these two factors tells us that we had a lot of imagination and a lot of enthusiasm in 2018 even to assume the presence of an Italian player in the Finals: more than a dream it was probably a mirage. Today the context è turned upside down: we have the strongest player in the world, the No. 1, who is 22 years old; we have the No. 14 on the Race who è even younger, he is one year younger; and we have a doubles pair also composed of a player from Piedmont, incredible, who è No. 3 on the Race. And so you will understand very well that not to do everything possible, and I also say the impossible, to hold the Finals in Italy would be madness, and I also say that not to succeed would mean to show that we are of a level below the capabilities of our athletes. And so I am convinced that we will succeed.
"As for this edition of the event, our General Manager will tell you about the additions and changes to the event master plan in which the Fan Village venue becomes more and more central. The Inalpi Arena we have known it inside out for four years, we have I believe brilliantly solved together with the City, the Region and our partners every problem: è an unchangeable venue, è completely sold-out, and therefore the new frontier of this event, the link between the event and the city; will be the Fan Village. A Fan Village that in our minds must be the tool to grow the excitement, passion, and involvement of the whole cityà and region for an edition, the next one, that must become even more successful than the last record 2023".
