Rome Italy) – Traditional event that completes the preparation for the Roland Garros dispute, the Rome tournament defined this Tuesday the distribution of invitations for the men’s and women’s main draws of the tournament that takes place from May 8th to 19th. Following the trend of recent seasons, the Italian federation decided to grant wild cards only to home tennis players.
Among the men, the vacancies were Matteo Berretini, Fabio Fognini, Giulio Zeppieri, Matteo Gigante and Andrea Vavassori. Among the women, Martina Trevisan Sara Errani, Lucrecia Stefanini, Giorgia Pedone, Nuria Brancaccio and Matilde Paoletti were included.
Initiative is an Italian tradition
Unlike other events around the world, including the Masters 1000 in Madrid, which invited João Fonseca from Rio de Janeiro to compete in the current edition in the Spanish capital, the tradition of the Rome tournament almost always opts to favor Italian players.
In the last two years, both the men’s and women’s groups had only local guests to compete in the competition. In 2021, the WTA event did something different and included Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, while in the previous season, North American Venus Williams, champion in 1999, and Russian Vera Zvonareva were honored.
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In the ATP, the last time a foreigner received an invitation was in the distant year 2008, when Croatian Mario Ancic and Russian Marat Safin won a wild card from the organization to play at the traditional Foro Italico sports complex.
The announcement of the invitations for the Rome tournament took place on the same day that the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation (FITP), Angelo Binaghi, declared that he intends to take advantage of the good phase of the sport in the country to transform its main competition into the fifth Circuit Grand Slam.
President of the Italian federation wants Rome as 5th Slam
