Tennis has overtaken football: more registered players than football and a federation with revenues of 280 million

During this period, the entire tennis sector has expanded: the number of affiliated clubs has exceeded 4,000, there are now more than 2,500 tennis and padel schools, the number of coaches has reached 14,000, and there are 10,000 match officials.

It would be an oversimplification to attribute all these increases to the ‘Sinner effect’. Of course, there have been extraordinary years such as 2025, when Jannik Sinner won two Grand Slams – the Australian Open and Wimbledon – the successes of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini at Roland Garros, a total of eleven titles won by Italian players on the ATP and WTA tours, and an unprecedented Italian presence across all categories at the Finals. But these victories were the result, not the cause, of the change. The model ‘engineered’ by the federation, led since 2001 by Angelo Binaghi (and which at the time had 130,000 members), stemmed from a deliberate choice: to transform major international events into revenue generators, the proceeds of which would be systematically reinvested in grassroots tennis and player development.

The Italian Open, which in the early 2000s was a tournament in decline, has become one of the main economic drivers of national sport and aims to become the ‘Fifth Grand Slam’. Rome has been joined by the ATP Finals in Turin and the Davis Cup Finals in Bologna, creating a network of events that generates a total economic impact of around 1.6 billion (and from 9 to 13 December, Reggio Calabria will once again host the Next Gen, featuring matches between the season’s top eight Under-20 players in the men’s draw).

The federations’ financial statements reflect this trend. By 2024, the FITP had already come close to matching the FIGC’s record, with revenues of 209 million compared to the FIGC’s 224 million. In 2025, the tennis federation’s revenue overtook that of the football federation: the tennis federation’s revenue exceeded 240 million, whilst that of the football federation stood at 214 million, partly due to the absence of a major international competition. And the forecast for 2026 is for the FITP to exceed 280 million in revenue – a level never before achieved by any federation.

Furthermore, whilst over 70 per cent of revenue comes from organising international events, a large proportion of these funds is reinvested in sporting activities – from grants to clubs to regional promotion, from training to support for professional and youth tournaments. In 2025, the costs of supporting sporting activities exceeded 200 million, compared with operational costs of just 16 million.

One of the most strategic investments concerns mid-tier tournaments. Twenty-five years ago, there were just 8 men’s Challenger tournaments and 16 men’s Futures tournaments held in Italia. Today, the Italian calendar features around ninety international events across the men’s and women’s circuits. The FITP supports these events with around 10 million a year, enabling young Italians to compete at a high level without having to bear the full cost of international travel. It is a policy that is not very visible but is crucial to the development of the next generation.

The result is the creation of an ecosystem that extends beyond the professional elite and which, according to FITP estimates, involves around 6.5 million participants and generates a total economic impact of over 8.7 billion (with 1.5 billion in tax revenue). Every euro invested in the sector yields an average of 4.6 euros in benefits for the community, in terms of health, productivity and indirect economic benefits.

Football remains the country’s leading sport in terms of popularity and tradition (in 11 regions it still has the highest number of registered players) and generates a total (direct, indirect and induced) which in 2024 stood at 13.7 billion (53 per cent attributable to the professional sector) with 3.5 billion in tax revenue. However, the FITP’s rise to the top confirms that football’s monopoly on sport no longer exists. For the first time, a well-structured competitor has emerged, with sound finances, major international events and widespread geographical coverage. Rather than a mere rivalry between sports, this demonstrates that it is possible to build alternative models of development within the Italian sporting world. Tennis has achieved this by starting from a marginal position and, within the space of two decades, transforming itself into the most interesting case study in European sport.