Italian Open (tennis)



The Italian Open (Internazionali d'Italia) is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is played on clay courts at the Foro Italico, and is held during the second week of May. The tournament is part of the ATP Masters 1000 events on the ATP Tour and part of the WTA 1000 events on the WTA Tour. The two events were combined in 2011. Rafael Nadal has won the men's singles title a record ten times.

History
The Italian tennis championship was first held in 1930 in Milan at the Tennis Club and was initiated by Count Alberto Bonacossa. The singles events at the tournament were won by Bill Tilden and Lilí Álvarez. The championships were held in Milan until 1934. The next year, 1935, the event moved to the Foro Italico in Rome. No edition was held between 1936 and 1949. The competition resumed in 1950. In 1961 the tournament was held in Turin at the Sporting Club. It has had various naming incarnations through the years including: the Italian International Championships, the Rome Masters, and the BNL d'Italia for sponsorship reasons.

The Italian Open became "open" to professional players in 1969. Between 1972 and 1989 it was a premier tournament of the Grand Prix Tennis Tour and was part of the Grand Prix Super Series top tier events. In 1990 it became an ATP Championship Series Single Week tournament, which included the nine most prestigious tournaments of the preceding Grand Prix tennis circuit. It has remained part of this category of events until today, that has changed names several times since, to be now known as the ATP Tour Masters 1000 events.

In June 2022, the ATP announced some changes to the ATP calendar for the coming year. The ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome along with those in Shanghai and in Madrid would now be held over two weeks starting in 2023, thus becoming 12 day events just like the Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.

In 1979 the women's event was held two weeks before the men's event. The women's event was played in Perugia from 1980 though 1984 and in Taranto in 1985. No women's event was held in 1986 and it moved back to Rome again in 1987 where it has remained.

The tournament is held at the Foro Italico tennis center, which is an extensive area with a total of 18 clay surface tennis courts, nine of which are used for the Italian Open tournament and the rest for training purposes. There are currently three stadium courts: the main one, Stadio Centrale, was rebuilt for the 2010 tournament and has a capacity of 10,400 spectators. The other grounds are the Stadio Pietrangeli (formerly Pallacorda, 3,500 seats ) and the Grand Stand Arena.

Records
Source: The Tennis Base

Women's singles

 * Longest final


 * Shortest completed final

Women's doubles

 * Longest final


 * Shortest completed finals