Rome, May 8, 2025 – A magical evening to celebrate a special project. At the Circolo Canottieri Aniene in Rome was staged, on the eve of the Masters 1000 on the red course of the Foro Italico, the award ceremony of Intesa Sanpaolo Assicurazioni Little Tennis Champions, the project created by I Tennis Foundation and dedicated to 12 Italian talents who have quality and ambition but not the economic resources to enhance them.
Present at the third edition of the Italian charity’s Charity Night were several testimonials and top Italian coaches who support its activities. From Simone Tartarini, the lifelong coach of the new top ten Lorenzo Musetti, to Marco Panichi, the man who today takes care of the muscles of world number 1 Jannik Sinner and before him racked up Slams in Novak Djokovic’s corner; from Italian coaches Renzo Furlan (protagonist of Jasmine Paolini’s rise to the top of women’s tennis) and Gipo Arbino (historic coach who raised Lorenzo Sonego to the best ranking of 21 ATP). And then three current champions of Italian tennis: Roman Flavio Cobolli, fresh from his first ATP title won this year in Bucharest, and Davisman last September in Bologna; left-hander all flair and quality Mattia Bellucci, starring in Rotterdam earlier this year with successes over Medvedev and Tsitsipas; and Rimini’s Lucia Bronzetti, instrumental in Italy’s triumph at the 2024 Billie Jean King Cup.
On the occasion, Cobolli and Bronzetti themselves, and Simone Tartarini, were honored as honorary members by I Tennis Foundation. “I am a great friend of Gipo Arbino and through him I got to know some time ago the beautiful initiatives of I Tennis Foundation,” Tartarini recounted. “All I can say to the kids is to always believe in dreams because I am the living example that they can come true. I consider myself more of a club master than a coach. I started coaching Lorenzo when he was 8 years old and today he is finally in the top 10, an achievement he has been waiting for a long time, but now that we have achieved it we are already looking ahead. We have been working together for more than 15 years, we have been through a lot, and he continues to this day to dream. And I continue to work with him and believe in his dreams. Perhaps the greatest thrill he gave me was bronze in the Olympics. So, keep dreaming, never give up and even if someone tells you to give up: have fun and keep believing in what you do.”
Special words also from Lucia Bronzetti: “For me to be taken as an example for the younger ones is an honor and it is what I aspire to. I am not a tennis player who can ‘smash’ the ball on the court, as they say in the jargon and as other girls do, so I have to use my intelligence and my means to beat players who hit better than me. So my advice is to always fight and above all have fun, which is the most important thing. You will see that with a lot of sacrifice and passion, big dreams can be realized.”
Flavio Cobolli, under the watchful gaze of his coach and dad Stefano, also spoke about the relationship to be established with the masters: “I am very happy to receive this recognition. I always try to be myself and not to change, even though I am now achieving so many goals that I dreamed of as a child. My goal is to always keep that smile that I had when I started. I wanted to congratulate all the I Tennis Foundation scholars: as Coach Tartarini said keep believing in your dreams and if I can give you some advice listen to the people around you. I don’t do this very often (laughs, nda), however, it is a very important thing and so please don’t upset your teachers!”
“The awards evening represents the culmination of an extraordinary journey. We are immensely proud of the 12 scholarship recipients of the Intesa Sanpaolo Assicurazioni Little Tennis Champions 2024-25 program,“ explained Simone Bongiovanni, co-founder of I Tennis Foundation and team manager of the project. ”Accompanied by the great coaches of our technical committee and our instructors, they have shown dedication, commitment and exceptional growth, both on a tennis and mental level. Our goal has always been to foster their personal and sporting growth, and the results they have achieved are concrete evidence of this path. We have to thank for this our partners and all the great coaches and racquet champions who never fail to support our activities.”
The scholarship plan, launched as early as the summer of 2022, aims to provide a year-long pathway including tennis training sessions with the association’s top coaches (over the years, Emilio Sanchez, Ivan Ljubicic, Francesca Schiavone, Vincenzo Santopadre, and Omar Camporese have also taken turns) and participation in ITF Under 18 international tournaments. To the 12 players also important activities such as mental coaching with Stefano Massari (historical mental coach of Matteo Berrettini) and Simone Bongiovanni.
The journey of this third edition of the Intesa Sanpaolo Assicurazioni Little Tennis Champions program has seen the 12 young Italian scholars grow and mature in every respect. The eight boys (Matteo Gribaldo, Mattia Cappellari, Carlo Paci, Alex Romano, Mattia Bille, Van Son Didoni, Christian Sala and Mattia Pagano) and the four girls (Francesca Galli, Alessandra Fiorillo, Alessia Antici, Giorgia Buccinotti) have played tournaments of the ITF Under 18 circuit between Italy, Spain, France, Slovenia, Morocco, San Marino, Egypt and Turkey, confirming the progress recorded in previous editions, with an overall tally since 2022 of 4 Italian titles won (the last one with Matteo Gribaldo in the Under 16 category) and an extraordinary international haul between Tennis Europe and ITF: 20 titles, 18 finals and 34 semifinals.