ITALY is another nation in the ATP Cup that has opted for a straightforward two singles and two doubles players setup. The Italians are a strong unit, with two Top 20 players which is rare, and if they live up to their potential, are certainly a chance of taking out the overall title.

TEAM:

Matteo Berrettini
Fabio Fognini
Simone Bolelli
Andrea Vavassori

The top singles player is 24-year-old rising talent Matteo Berrettini who comes in at number 10. Alongside Fabio Fognini (17th), the pair provide a formidable duo, third overall behind Spain and Russia as a combination. While Berrettini is no guarantee to win the number one singles, Fognini is a great second singles player, it will just be about what mindset he takes into the tournament and whether he can play to his full potential.

The 33-year-old is no spring chicken, and his 2020 resulted in a simply terrible 6-10 record across the ATP Tour. Since reaching the Round of 16 at Melbourne Park, he won just the one match – against Philipp Kohlscreiber in Hamburg – and finished the year with eight losses in the final nine games. Even his wins were far from convincing, needing five sets to overcome Reilly Opelka and Jordan Thompson at Melbourne Park and scraped past John Isner 12 months ago in the ATP Cup, also blown away by 54th ranked Casper Ruud. Keen to put 2020 behind him, Fognini can still be a threat against most players.

Berrettini also slipped a tad after reaching the 2019 ATP Finals, though still remains relatively stable in the ATP Tour Rankings. He reached a quarter final in Antalya last week, but it is hard to read too much into it, knocking off players ranked 298th and 446th in the world before losing to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in straight sets. In the end it mirrored his 2020 season which was a 9-6 record, but not on the same level as his 2019 breakout year.

In the doubles, Italy has Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori who are purely focused on that format of the Tour, and are the two highest ranked doubles players from the nation. They also played 32 and a remarkable 39 tournaments in the past 52 weeks (counting those from 2019 cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic). The question will lie in how well they will play together, having played with other partners throughout the year, though Bolelli is an experienced person on the circuit, and reliable in the format. They would certainly be a tough matchup for any opponent.

Overall Italy could easily win against anyone, but also lose against many, which makes them a wildcard of a team entering this year’s ATP Cup. They have the talent on paper, it will be whether they can go on with it and get the job done.

Picture credit: USTA