Since the beginning of ATP ranking — dating back 1973 — only 41 Italian tennis players have made it to the top 100. But the good news is that ten of them are still playing at the present time. They proudly represent the new golden age of Italian tennis which began in 2006, under the sign of women players.

That year, Italy won the first of its four Fed Cups — the equivalent of the men’s Davis Cup — led by the Milanese talent Francesca Schiavone who, just four years later, would put her name in the hall of fame of world tennis by winning the 2010 Roland Garros. Before her, only two Italian tennis legends succeded in winning a Grand Slam tournament in singles: Nicola Pietrangeli and Adriano Panatta, always on the red clay courts of Paris.