Tennis: the Next Gen Finals return to Italy – in Reggio Calabria
Following the Finals in Turin and the Davis Cup in Bologna, the junior tournament – which was previously held in Riyadh – is also coming to Italy: from 9 to 13 December
The tennis of the future will be played from 9 to 13 December in Reggio Calabria, and Italia has the full house: on the sidelines of the US Open in New York, Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, Andre Silva, Chief Tour Officer of the ATP, and Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria Region, announced that the Next Gen Finals will take place in exactly three months’ time.
The Milan Years
The Junior Finals, which launched the careers of stars such as Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, are thus returning to the country where they began: the tournament featuring the eight best players of the next generation had been hosted in Milan since 2017 before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2023, though the latter has been ruled out in recent months due to the war.
“We must thank the ATP for the credibility it has given us through this event, which we launched for the first five years in Milan,” said Binaghi, noting that Riyadh had for many years been put forward as a possible alternative to the Finals in Turin: “Not only did they not get them, but now they’re giving us the Under-20s back.”
All over Italia
The Next Gen tournaments thus join the Davis Cup in Bologna and the Finals in Turin: “It has never happened before,” said Binaghi, “that the three major end-of-season events have all taken place in the same country.”
“The future of world tennis will be decided in Reggio: tomorrow’s top talents will compete at the PalaCalafiore and the eyes of the tennis world will be on Calabria,” Occhiuto noted proudly, whilst Binaghi explained that southern Italia had been chosen because Italians have a deep-seated passion for tennis and the FITP is striving to organise events in such a way as to satisfy that passion, from South Tyrol to Calabria.
