BNL Italy Major Premier Padel: the third edition at Foro Italico in Rome

From June 17 to 23, one of the four Majors of the year will take place in the temple of Italian sport. Carraro: “Rome is padel and padel is Rome: the first two editions of this extraordinary event have taught us this.”

Here it is, the second Major Premier Padel of the 2024 season. After the great success in Doha, the world’s top players are ready to land in Italy for the third edition of the BNL Italy Major Premier Padel: from June 17 to 23, at Foro Italico – one of the most iconic locations in Italian sport – 2.000 FIP ranking points will be at stake for the winners in an event that last year drew 25.000 spectators to the stands of the historic facility in the capital. In 2023, the BNL Italy Major Premier Padel marked a turning point in the professional circuit governed by the FIP: it was the first event in ‘combined’ mode, with both a men’s and a women’s draw, with Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia winning among the men, and Gemma Triay and Marta Ortega among the women. This format was then confirmed in all other tournaments around the world.

LUIGI CARRARO “All the players define the Rome tournament as ‘the most beautiful in the world’”, explained FIP President Luigi Carraro during the press conference. “I would first like to thank the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida for his particular attention to padel and sport in general. I also thank the President of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation Angelo Binaghi and the CEO of Sport e Salute Diego Nepi Molineris for believing in the project: without them, perhaps this Major would not have happened in Rome. As everyone knows”, Carraro continued, “Premier Padel is a circuit that has allowed this sport to make a leap forward, becoming important and global. During the FIP General Assembly, we also presented the first World Padel Report, which highlighted that Italy ranks second in the world for the number of courts and players, an element crucial for the further growth of the discipline in this country. Rome has believed in this tournament and wanted it to be one of the four cities worldwide to host a Major, and today we can say that Italy will always have one of the top four tournaments in the world. We can consider Rome as one of the great capitals of world padel”.

The players love Rome: “When they are here, they give and receive unique emotions”, Carraro continued. “You will remember Paquito Navarro, who, after losing the 2022 final, started singing ‘Paquito is on fire’ with the audience to the tune of ‘Freed from Desire,’ which became one of the anthems of padel. The best players will be here, and there will also be some Italian wild cards who will have the opportunity to shine”, In the men’s draw, Giulio Graziotti and Flavio Abbate, Marco Cassetta and Dylan Demian Cuello, Lorenzo Di Giovanni and Riccardo Sinicropi, Simone Cremona and Nuno Deus; in the women’s draw, Valentina Tommasi and Marianela Montesi, Martina Parmigiani and Erika Zanchetta. “The BNL Italy Major Premier Padel in Rome represents one of the most important moments of the season, not only from a technical point of view, because in the beautiful setting of Foro Italico everything becomes unique and unrepeatable”, Carraro continued. “I think of the spectacle of the Centrale, a true temple of racket sports, or the emotion of the great players entering the Nicola Pietrangeli court, acclaimed by an audience unique for enthusiasm and passion. Rome is padel and padel is Rome: the first two editions of the Major have taught us this”.

MINISTER FRANCESCO LOLLOBRIGIDA Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida also spoke at the press conference. He did not hide his passion for padel and shared an important anecdote. “Yesterday I was at the Carabinieri’s anniversary celebration, which this year marks 210 years, and I had a pleasant conversation with Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Minister of the Interior of Qatar, one of the most important and representative countries in the world of padel”, he said. “We talked about many things, including topics related to our roles, and at one point we discussed padel, a sport we both enjoy, and the conversation became very enthusiastic. From the way he mastered the subject and talked about it, I understood that he has a genuine personal passion for this sport. He reiterated his country’s commitment to padel and the development of sports in general”. The minister also praised the international padel governance. “Padel has had the fortune to encounter a particularly empathetic person, with great and pronounced intelligence like Luigi Carraro, who has always represented himself with great humility, creating the definitive conditions for the expansion of padel worldwide”.

DIEGO NEPI MOLINERIS “When we decided to bet on padel, we did so with a forwardlooking perspective”, revealed Diego Nepi, CEO of Sport and Salute. “In three years, Rome has become one of the 4 major padel tournaments in the world (along with Doha, Paris, and Acapulco). Milan has consolidated its appeal, and this year Genoa will host a P2. This is the idea that drives Sport e Salute when it decides to bet on an event: not just the event itself, which ends with the proclamation of the winners, but the event that establishes itself. The Foro Italico, like a film set, transformed in a few days from the red of tennis to the blue of padel, adapting to the needs of the event while never losing its nature: mutable but immortal”.

ALESSANDRO ONORATO Alessandro Onorato, Councillor for Major Events, Sport, Tourism, and Fashion of Rome, highlighted the connection between the eternal city and major sporting events. “Rome”, he reiterated, “is the capital of padel; it is the city where it is played the most in Italy, with over 350.000 practitioners on 1.487 courts in 399 facilities, numbers that increase every month. The BNL Italy Major Premier Padel, for the third consecutive year in the Capital, is a continually growing event that gives prestige to Rome and contributes to the expansion of a movement that has become a social as well as a sporting phenomenon. It will be a spectacle to see the strokes of the champions in an international tournament that enhances the already packed calendar of major events in Rome”.

FLAVIO SINISCALCHI In addition to Minister Lollobrigida, Flavio Siniscalchi, Head of the Department for Sport of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, was also present, representing the government. “It is an honor to be here today”, he confessed, “and to bring you the greetings of the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi. Premier Padel represents an important point of reference, and the 2024 edition increases its relevance, especially considering the recent inclusion of Sport in our Constitution, recognizing the educational, social, and promotion of physical and mental well-being value of sports activity.