Azzurro Davis, Italy told through eight finals

Table of Contents

• 1 From Pietrangeli to the first Davis in ’76
• 2 The triumph of 2023 with Sinner
• 3 ”We tell the story of Italy”
• 4 Waiting and hope for Malaga
• 5 **Beyond individual player achievements, what does the book reveal about the significance of the Davis Cup for Italian national identity and unity, both in past eras ‌and in the present day?**

The exploits of Nicola Pietrangeli, Adriano Panatta, Jannik Sinner (and many others) together with the story of the economic boom, the years of lead, the birth of Google and the contemporary era. In “Blue Davis“, a book released last October 2nd published by “Rai Libri”, the Banfield Collective retraces over 60 years of tennis by recounting the eight finals that Italy played in the Davis Cup from 1960 to 2023, combining sporting exploits with the socio-historical-cultural aspects of our country.

From Pietrangeli to the first Davis in ’76

Inside the volume we find eight chapters, where there is the story of great sporting and human challenges and how the Bel Paese has changed, touching on topics such as politics, customs, entertainment and civil society. We start from Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola who dragged Italy to the first Davis final in 1960 (defeated by Australia), the year in which the country was in full economic boom and was trying to establish itself as an industrial and cultural power, to arrive at first historic achievement of 1976 in Chile made by Adriano Panatta, Corrado Barazzutti, Paolo Bertolucci and Antonio Zugarelli, which represented a moment of national unity and pride, in a period that was not easy for the homeland.

The triumph of 2023 with Sinner

The story continues, passing through Gaudenzi, Sanguinetti, Nargiso, up to the 2023 edition in Malaga (when Davis has already changed its format several years ago), where the feat of Jannik Sinner and of the team led by Volandri, who won the second cup 47 years after the first: athletes who grew up in an Italy that has meanwhile made giant strides in terms of technology, culture and openness towards the world.

”We tell the story of Italy”

The book is the result of the work of Banfield Collectivea variable literary formation founded by Diego Mariottini in 2016, known for her works focused on sports themes and protagonists. ”The Banfield Collective – says Mariottini – always deals with personalities and sporting events capable of going beyond the facts themselves. Here, with Azzurro Davis, there is the Italian history of the last sixty years. From the economic boom to globalization passing through the years of lead, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the digital revolution. The tennis of Pietrangeli, Panatta, Bertolucci, Sinner and gradually all the others had the power to glue us to the screens, to make us feel even more Italian. If we think about the eight Davis Cup finals we are still in debt with fate but our current team is not barred from achieving anything. In total contrast to the current situation in our country. A tiring but also surprising research and writing team effort, which no one had thought of”.

Waiting and hope for Malaga

The authors who contributed to Azzurro Davis (Lucio Biancatelli, Germana Brizzolari, Lorenzo Fabiano, Diego Mariottini, Matteo Mosciatti, Alessandro Nizegorodcew, Andrea Pelliccia and Carlo Rinaldi) are united by a passion for sport and the ability to describe it not only as a competition, but as a cultural and social phenomenon. And who knows, in view of the 2024 Davis Finals scheduled for 19 to 24 November in Malaga, the book will be enriched with an additional chapter. Sinner and his teammates have everything they need to repeat the triumph of 12 months ago.