Some said that Italy was a republic founded on football. Others that Italians lose football matches as if they were wars and wars as if they were football matches. This was the story before Sinner. But the son of the mountains with red curls has changed his course. Smash to tradition. Tonight at 9 pm Jannik is not only challenging Jack Draper in his first semifinal at the US Open (free-to-air on Supertennis), but an entire system of values. Because a quarter of an hour earlier the National team takes to the field for the Nations League: France-Italy at the Parc des Princes in Paris, visible on Rai 1. The first act of a precious tournament in view of the qualifications for the 2026 World Cup.
Sinner – Draper, time and where to watch the US Open semi-final on TV
To be seeded for the Azzurri, it is enough to come in second in the Nations group, which also includes Belgium and Israel. Not only that, because an excellent path in the competition guarantees another lifebelt in view of the World Cup: access to the play-offs in the event of a negative result in the qualifying groups. In short, an important event for Italy, orphaned by Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, this year coming off the disastrous European Championship in Germany. But will all this be enough to keep viewers glued to the first channel? At that moment, with his racket, Sinner will be drawing the trajectories of the last slam chapter of his best-selling year, which began with the historic victory at the Australian Open, followed by the climb to first place in the ranking.
National team, Spalletti’s necessary corrections and the timing of Gravina’s reforms
by Paolo Condò
So his presence in the clear undermines the dogma of football. Sacrilege. Sinner challenges Spalletti in the field of share, with the risk that the South Tyrolean wins there too. “National team? No thanks, I prefer Sinner”, writes a user on X. Someone even launches surveys and the racket beats the boots in a plebiscitary way. Because if on the one hand Italians remain sick of football, loved by 53 percent of the country, tennis fans are almost 4 out of 10, as revealed by a Demos survey published in Repubblica last spring. Many speak of the Sinner effect, others even of Sinnernomics, as if his winning model could inspire an economic policy. In fact, the numbers don’t lie: the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation will close the year with over a million members, about 300 thousand more than in 2022. To make a comparison with the world of football, those of the FIGC are one million and 400 thousand. A gap still wide but increasingly thin, considering that in 2000 the members of the Fitp were only 129 thousand. Another era, certainly, a few moments before the year zero, when Sinner was born, who on behalf of the Italians found traces of life even beyond the planet Football.
#Spalletti #Sinner #dilemma #Italians #tonight #front #Football
– 2024-09-12 07:47:36
