ROME (ITALPRESS) – Italy is increasingly a powerhouse in men’s tennis. Jannik Sinner surpasses Mats Wilander’s number 1 weeks (he’s at 21), Lorenzo Musetti (16, +1) is just one position away from the best ranking thanks to a semifinal in Vienna, Matteo Berrettini is back in the Top 40 as a result of a quarterfinal in the Austrian ATP 500. That makes five Italians in the world’s top 40 this week-only the U.S. can count more. Among the top 20 Italians Samuel Vincent Ruggeri (256,+1) touches up his best ranking. No change as far as the Top 10 is concerned this week. Significant progress, scrolling down the rankings, for key players in the ATP 500s concluded Sunday in Vienna and Basel. Enter Top 15 Jack Draper, champion in Vienna and the fourth Briton to triumph in an ATP 500 since they were introduced on the calendar. Ben Shelton, a finalist in Basel, returns to the Top 20. The champion in Switzerland, Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, is the Top 100 player who gained the most positions of all this week (31, +19). At the end of 2023 he was No. 206; no player in the top 50 today has improved his ranking more conspicuously this season. Finally, it is worth mentioning the debut of the Czech Jakub Mensik, stopped at the quarters in Vienna, in the Top 50 (48, +3), and the Finnish Otto Virtanen (96, +18) among the top 100.A nice variation in a tricolor key in the women’s world ranking published this morning by the WTA after the conclusion of the WTA 500 in Tokyo of the WTA 250 in Guangzhou. Also this week there are always four Italian players among the top 100. Tricolor leader is confirmed Jasmine Paolini who gains two positions and climbs to fourth place marking another “best” in a fabulous season. The Tuscan equals the position reached in the rankings by Francesca Schiavone on January 31, 2011. “Jas” – the first Italian player since 2015 on court at the WTA Finals – is qualified for both singles and doubles. At the top of the rankings remains Belarusian Aryba Sabalenka, by a wide margin over former No. 1, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, still second ahead of U.S. Coco Gauff. American Jessica Pegula, now sixth, loses two positions, while another star player, Danielle Collins, returns to the top-10. The other three Italians in the top 100 are still Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who slips two places and is 54th, Lucia Bronzetti, who gains seven places thanks to the Guangzhou semifinal and is 77th, and Sara Errani, who advances two places and is 89th.- Photo Ipa Agency -(ITALPRESS).
