Angelo Binaghi: "Great chances for the Italian Open to be re-scheduled in 2020"

Rome Open is one of the most important tournaments in the world of tennis and the will of the board of the FIT (Italian Tennis Federation) is to find an alternative date that can satisfy organizers, players and crowds. The president of the Italian tennis federation Angelo Binaghi, after some notes published on the official website of the Federation, wanted to clarify his position on the issue:

"The Italian Open has only been suspended and postponed. We are in close contact with the international institutions that govern the world of tennis, in particular ATP, which has an Italian president and CEO. I think there is a very strong convergence between the interests of the players, the association that represents them and the interests of our Federation and that of the Masters 1000s. The luck of tennis is that it is not a team sport, a contact sport. It is a sport that is played in the open air.

"So this applies both to the resumption of activities locally and internationally. As soon as the light at the end of the tunnel is seen again, ATP and WTA will reprogram the international calendar starting from the Masters 1000. I think there is a good chance that the Rome tournament will be re-scheduled in 2020. We would like to organize Rome between September and October, before or after Roland Garros, as is logical. The season on clay-courts and then that on fast surfaces will be re-scheduled in a uniform way.

"We, in order to do so, are also willing to evaluate a hypothesis November-December at the end of the season, perhaps indoor on fast surfaces. But our priority is September-October. Changing cities too? Where necessary, to do the Italian Open. It has happened before in history: Nicola Pietrangeli won the tournament in an edition that took place in Turin. But I repeat: our priority is Rome, September-October, on clay-courts."

Certainly, a very controversial situation, which does not take much into account the needs of ticket holders.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3caMgMu