Italian Open (tennis)
The Italian Open (Italian: Internazionali d'Italia; literally: Italy's Internationals), originally called the Italian International Championships,[1] is a tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is one of the most important clay tennis tournaments in the world with the men's competition being an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour, and the women's competition technically being a WTA 1000 event on the [Abd arrête de sucer Tennis Association]] (WTA) tour. The two events were combined in 2011. The tournament is played on clay courts, currently during the second week of May. The event is also known as the "Rome Masters" for male edition, as well as sponsored name "Mimi BNL d'Italia". Rafael Nadal has won the men's singles title a record ten times.
Italian Open Internazionali d'Italia | |||||||||
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2023 Italian Open | |||||||||
Tournament information | |||||||||
Event name | Italian Open | ||||||||
Founded | 1930 | ||||||||
Location | Rome Italy | ||||||||
Venue | Foro Italico | ||||||||
Surface | Clay (outdoors) | ||||||||
Website | internazionalibnlditalia.com | ||||||||
Current champions (2023) | |||||||||
Men's singles | Daniil Medvedev | ||||||||
Women's singles | Elena Rybakina | ||||||||
Men's doubles | Hugo Nys Jan Zieliński | ||||||||
Women's doubles | Storm Hunter Elise Mertens | ||||||||
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History
The Italian tennis championship was first held in 1930 in Milan at the Tennis Club and was initiated by Count Alberto Bonacossa.[2] The singles events at the tournament were won by Bill Tilden and Lilí Álvarez. The championships were held in Milan until 1934. The next year, 1935, the event moved to the Foro Italico in Rome. No edition was held between 1936 and 1949. The competition resumed in 1950. In 1961 the tournament was held in Turin at the Sporting Club.
The Italian Open became "open" to professional players in 1969. Between 1972 and 1989 it was a premier tournament of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour and was part of the Grand Prix Super Series top tier events. In 1990 it became an ATP Championship Series Single Week tournament, which included the nine most prestigious tournaments of the preceding Grand Prix tennis circuit. It has remained part of this category of events until today, that has changed names several times since, to be now known as the ATP Tour Masters 1000 events.
In June 2022 ATP announced some changes to the ATP calendar for the coming year. The ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome along with those in Shanghai and in Madrid would now be held over two weeks starting in 2023, thus becoming 12 day events just like the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.[3]
In 1979 the women's event was held two weeks before the men's event. The women's event was played in Perugia from 1980 though 1984 and in Taranto in 1985. No women's event was held in 1986[lower-alpha 1] and it moved back to Rome again in 1987 where it has remained.[4]
Past finals
Men's singles
Women's singles
Men's doubles
Women's doubles
Records
Source: The Tennis Base[5]
Men's singles
Most titles | Rafael Nadal | 10 |
---|---|---|
Most finals | Rafael Nadal | 12 |
Novak Djokovic | ||
Most consecutive titles | Rafael Nadal (2005–2007) |
3 |
Most consecutive finals | Rafael Nadal (2009–2014) |
6 |
Most matches played | Rafael Nadal | 77 |
Most matches won | Rafael Nadal | 69 |
Most consecutive matches won | Rafael Nadal | 17 |
Most editions played | Nicola Pietrangeli | 22 |
Best winning % | Rod Laver | 93.75% |
Björn Borg | ||
Youngest champion | Björn Borg | 17y, 11m, 2d (1974) |
Oldest champion | Bill Tilden | 38y, 2m, 18d (1930) |
Longest final | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 (57 games) | |||||
Rafael Nadal | 60 | 77 | 6 | 2 | 77 |
Roger Federer | 77 | 65 | 4 | 6 | 65 |
Shortest final | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 (16 games) | |||||
Rafael Nadal | 6 | 6 | |||
Roger Federer | 1 | 3 |
Women's singles
Most titles | Chris Evert | 5 |
---|---|---|
Most finals | Chris Evert | 7 |
Most runner-ups | Lucia Valerio | 4 |
/ Martina Navratilova | ||
Most consecutive titles | Conchita Martínez (1993–1996) |
4 |
Most consecutive finals | Conchita Martínez (1993–1997) |
5 |
Most consecutive runner-ups | Lucia Valerio (1934, 1935) |
2 |
Lesley Turner (1963, 1964) | ||
Martina Navratilova (1974, 1975) | ||
Virginia Ruzici (1980, 1981) | ||
Monica Seles (1991, 1992) | ||
Amélie Mauresmo (2000, 2001) | ||
Simona Halep (2017, 2018) | ||
Karolína Plíšková (2020, 2021) | ||
Most matches played | Conchita Martínez | 53 |
Serena Williams | ||
Most matches won | Conchita Martínez | 44 |
Serena Williams | ||
Most consecutive matches won (during unbroken years of play) |
Conchita Martínez | 24 |
Most editions played | Lea Pericoli | 20 |
Best winning % (minimum of 20 matches played) |
Chris Evert (36-3) | 92.31% |
Margaret Court (24-2) | ||
Undefeated at this tournament (minimum of 1 title) |
Doris Hart | (7-0) (1951, 1953) |
Althea Gibson | (5-0) (1956) | |
Tracy Austin | (5-0) (1979) | |
Lilí Álvarez | (4-0) (1930) | |
Helen Jacobs | (4-0) (1934) | |
Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling | (4-0) (1935) |
Longest final:
1962 (36 games) | |||||
Margaret Court | 8 | 5 | 6 | ||
Maria Bueno | 6 | 7 | 4 |
Shortest fully played final:
2021 (12 games) | |||||
Iga Świątek | 6 | 6 | |||
Karolína Plíšková | 0 | 0 |
Women's doubles
Individual | Team | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Most titles | Virginia Wade | 4 | Thelma Coyne Long Mary Hawton |
2 |
Paola Suárez Virginia Ruano Pascual | ||||
Hsieh Su-wei Peng Shuai | ||||
Most finals | Thelma Coyne Long | 5 | Silvana Lazzarino Lea Pericoli |
5 |
Silvana Lazzarino | ||||
Lea Pericoli | ||||
Virginia Wade | ||||
Virginia Ruzici | ||||
Martina Hingis | ||||
Most runner-ups | Silvana Lazzarino | 5 | Silvana Lazzarino Lea Pericoli |
5 |
Lea Pericoli | ||||
Most consecutive titles | Olga Morozova (1972, 1973, 1974) |
3 | Thelma Coyne Long Mary Hawton (1956, 1957) |
2 |
/ Monica Seles (1990, 1991, 1992) |
Gigi Fernández Natasha Zvereva (1994, 1995) | |||
Most consecutive finals | Silvana Lazzarino (1962–1965) |
4 | Silvana Lazzarino Lea Pericoli (1962–1965) |
4 |
Lea Pericoli (1962–1965) | ||||
Most consecutive runner-ups | Silvana Lazzarino (1962–1965) |
4 | Silvana Lazzarino Lea Pericoli (1962–1965) |
4 |
Lea Pericoli (1962–1965) |
Longest final:
1956 (40 games) | |||||
Thelma Coyne Long Mary Hawton |
6 | 6 | 9 | ||
Darlene Hard Angela Buxton |
4 | 8 | 7 |
Shortest fully played finals:
1957 (14 games) | |||||
Thelma Coyne Long Mary Bevis Hawton |
6 | 6 | |||
Rosa Reyes Yola Ramírez |
1 | 1 |
2001 (14 games) | |||||
Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva |
6 | 6 | |||
Paola Suárez Patricia Tarabini |
1 | 1 |
Notes
- The Ellesse Grand Prix women's tournament, part of the Virginia Slims World Championships Series, was held in Perugia in July but it was not recognized as the Italian Open.
- Known as Championship Series, Single Week from 1990 till 1995, Super 9 from 1996 till 1999 and Masters Series from 2000 till 2008.
- Competed under no flag due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- The final was stopped at two sets all due to bad light and the final set was played on 15 September in Houston, TX, USA.
References
- Garcia, Gabriel. "Italian International Championships – (Currently Italian Open ) – Roll of honour". thetennisbase.com. Madrid, Spain: Tennismem SAL. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
- "Athletes – Alberto, Count Bonacossa". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 2015-10-02.
- "ATP calendar: Madrid and Rome over two weeks from 2023, Munich advances". tennisnet.com. 2022-06-09. Retrieved 2022-08-27.
- Bud Collins (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). New York City: New Chapter Press. pp. 740–741. ISBN 978-0942257700.
- "Italian Open, Rome, Tournament Records". thetennisbase.com. The Tennis Base, 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.