Champions in the Davis Cup Finals, Italy have proven themselves to be a nation full of talented tennis stars even outside of the current players in the higher echelons in the rankings and a golden generation is seemingly imminent.
As of the latest ATP Rankings and with Luciano Darderi winning in Cordoba, he reached World No.76, up 60 spots so is now well inside the World's top 100 and he joins five players overall from the top 100.
Led by Jannik Sinner, the World No.4 and current Australian Open champion, he is well ahead of the rest but most were born around 2000 to 2002 and have shown that there is certainly promise for the future. Lorenzo Musetti, Matteo Arnaldi, Flavio Cobolli are also in the top 100.
But even outside of those players, Lorenzo Sonego is also high in the rankings at 48, while Matteo Berrettini despite having current injury toils is also still potentially set to return to some semblance of his best in the future. Now joined by Darderi, they are simply continuing to add new talented stars that can anchor a generation past the current rise of the Big Three and it is currently led by the Australian Open champion.
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Italy really got an incredible generation.
Five players aged 21 or 22 now inside the top 100.
+ Sonego and Berrettini who surely have good years ahead of them.
José Morgado
@josemorgado
One of the most surprising title runs I can remember. Not because Darderi doesn’t have the talent, but my lord, completely out of nowhere.
This Italian early 2000s generation is ABSURD.