Italian Open 2023: Preview, Where to watch, Dates, Schedule, Seeds, Live Streaming details

The Italian Open, formerly known as the Italian International Championships, is a tennis competition held in Rome, Italy. With the men’s competition being an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour and the women’s competition technically being a WTA 1000 event on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour, it is one of the most significant clay tennis tournaments in the world. In 2011, the two occasions were combined. On clay courts, the competition is currently held the second week of May. The competition is additionally known as the “Rome Masters” for men’s edition and the “Internazionali BNL d’Italia” sponsored name. A record ten times, Rafael Nadal has won the men’s singles championship.

Count Alberto Bonacossa founded the Italian tennis championship, which was first played in 1930 in Milan at the Tennis Club. Bill Tilden and Lilvarez took first place in the singles competition at the tournament. Up until 1934, the championships were held in Milan. The celebration was moved to Rome’s Foro Italico the following year, in 1935. Between 1936 and 1949, there was no edition. In 1950, the competition was restarted. The 1961 competition took place at the Sporting Club in Turin.

The ATP calendar for the upcoming year underwent some changes, which were announced in June 2022. Beginning in 2023, the ATP Masters 1000 events in Rome, Shanghai, and Madrid will all be spread out over two weeks, making them 12-day events like the Masters 1000 competitions in Indian Wells and Miami.

Schedule and Dates

The 2023 Italian Open will have seven rounds of play excluding the qualifying rounds. These are the round of 128, round of 64, round of 32, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. The main draw of the tournament is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, May 10 and conclude on Sunday, May 21. Here is the round-wise schedule of the ATP 1000 event.

Top seeds

Men’s

Novak Djokovic has been seeded first in the 2023 Italian Open followed by a man in red hot form, Carlos Alcaraz. The likes of Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev also feature in the top 10. The seeds also feature some of the best young talents in world tennis today including Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner among others.

Women’s

As expected, the top two spots are taken by Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka respectively. Both players are in a tremendous run of form and seem to be developing a feisty rivalry. Despite their lack luster performances of late, the likes of Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Caroline Garcia also feature in the top five.

Prize money & points

Where to watch

Australia – beIN Sports

Canada – TVA Sports, DAZN, TSN

India – Sony LIV

UK – Amazon Prime Video

US – Tennis Channel