In Italy, the Davis Cup has been rediscovered. Or rather, it has been rediscovered purely to accuse Jannik Sinner of not loving it enough. Since announcing his withdrawal, Italy’s number one player has been at the center of a summary trial: he lives abroad, speaks German, and won’t wear the national blue. A perfect script for talk-show rhetoric, where patriotism is measured in attendance records rather than results.
The truth is less epic and more straightforward. The Davis Cup is not what it used to be. In the Seventies to Nineties, it was played best-of-five sets, home or away, with weeks of space between rounds. An event of great stature, sometimes even with political connotations—just think of Italy vs. Chile in Santiago, with the “Azzurri” wearing red shirts in protest against Pinochet.
Today, after the 2019 reform, it is a concentrated, televised event, often on neutral ground, reduced to three sets, and spread over just a few days. A compressed competition, without the historical breadth that once made it a privilege rather than an obligation.
And if we really want to talk about precedents, the greats never treated the Davis Cup as a sacred bond. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray: all of them, at different times, have withdrawn. None had to justify their loyalty to the flag. The difference, perhaps, is that social media didn’t exist back then, and public shaming was a luxury reserved only for politicians.
Meanwhile, the calendar has become inhuman. Between Slams, Masters, mandatory tournaments, travel, and sponsors, the margins to breathe have shrunk to a mere parenthesis. The top players themselves—from Rune to Fritz—speak of an unsustainable tour. The result is a contradiction: we preach less physical wear-and-tear, then condemn those who try to manage it. To be clear, we’ve already written what we think of the millionaire sportswashing of the “Six King,” but only a fool would think that exhibition is as demanding as a Davis Cup, even in its reduced format. Sinner knows this, having won the event.
And as if that weren’t enough, along comes the comic masterpiece. Bruno Vespa, a historic face of state TV, a generalist journalist who mostly deals with politics, decides to intervene on X to say that Sinner does not deserve the support of Italians: “He speaks German, lives in Montecarlo, doesn’t play for the national team.” Then, to finish with a flourish, he adds: “Honour to Alvarez, who plays the Davis Cup for Spain.”
Not Alcaraz. Alvarez. Like Canelo, the Mexican boxer…
It is a gaffe worthy of a caricature. Criticizing Sinner by citing the world number one and getting his name wrong is the perfect synthesis of a surface-level patriotism: loud, ignorant, and televised.
The paradox is that those who invoke the blue jersey today do so in the name of a nostalgia that no longer exists. The contemporary Davis Cup is not the pinnacle of a duel between nations; it is worth far less than a Slam. For a country, winning Wimbledon is far more important from a tennis standpoint, even if it is an individual tournament.
And besides, it just shows they are out of touch with history. Attacking Sinner for not making the Davis Cup a centerpiece of his season is equivalent to scolding a Formula 1 driver for not racing in the Mille Miglia.
The point, if anything, is something else: in Italy, identity is confused with devotion. And there is a demand that an athlete must sacrifice logic on the altar of sentimentalism. Sinner has betrayed nothing; he has simply acted like a professional. It is not his patriotism that is in question, but the seriousness with which certain pundits talk about sports.
