We calculated the weight of each country in the top 30, based on points earned: ours accounts for almost 20%, more than Spain and the United States

Until just over two years ago, tennis fans had to leaf through the almanacs to find the last Italian in the world’s top 5: Adriano Panatta, back in 1976. Now we have two at the same time. The new ATP rankings, published today, will go down in history: Jannik Sinner is number 2 and Lorenzo Musetti is number 5. The South Tyrolean, who has been at the top for 66 weeks, entered the top 5 (in 4th place) for the first time on October 2, 2023. Today it is the turn of the player from Carrara.

Italy is the only country to boast two players in the top five, four in the top 30, five in the top 50, and eight in the top 100: in addition to the two stars, Flavio Cobolli is No. 22, Luciano Darderi is No. 24, Lorenzo Sonego is No. 41, Matteo Berrettini is No. 56, Matteo Arnaldi is No. 65, and Mattia Bellucci (No. 76). Except for Sonego and Berrettini, all are between 23 and 24 years old. The movement is rich, deep, and destined to last a long time. Focusing the analysis on the top 30 in the world, i.e., the elite of the professional circuit, Italy clearly emerges as the best nation. This is confirmed by our calculations, which take into account not only the number of representatives each country has, but also their relative position in the rankings, based on the points they have earned on the tour and their percentage of the total points (97,928) accumulated by the current top 30. This reveals the weight of each country in the top tier of the ATP rankings.

calculations—  Adding up the points earned by Sinner, Musetti, Cobolli, and Darderi, Italy takes a fifth of the pie, exactly 19.54%, keeping the others at a safe distance. Spain follows, led by number one Alcaraz, with 14.94%; then the United States with 13.15%. The American movement has the highest number of athletes in the top 30, with five, but the top two, Shelton (8th) and Fritz (9th), are far from our top ten. We leave behind numerous countries that, as schools or individual champions, we used to look at with envy in the past: Russia (8.00%), Germany (5.21%), Serbia (4.88%), the United Kingdom (4.62%), the Czech Republic (4.30%), Australia (4.17%), Argentina (2.08%), and France (1.58%). Italy’s record has been built up over a period of twenty years. Sinner has been a blessing; everything else has been hard work, planning, and investment.