The Davis Cup arrives in Puglia: the stages of the Trophy Tour presented in Bari.

On the occasion of the arrival of the Davis Cup in Puglia, was held yesterday at Palazzo di Città, a Bari, the presentation of the Apulian stages of the Trophy Tour, the Davis Cup tour that is crossing Italy to allow all fans to touch the prestigious trophy first-hand.

The Cup, which Italy won last November in Malaga after 47 years waiting, will be on display in the Massari hall of the Municipality of Bari until Wednesday 14 February. On the 15th and 16th it will then be exhibited at Bari Tennis Club (via Martinez 4). The Apulian tour will then continue in Taranto from the afternoon of 17th to 19th February at Palazzo di Città (vicolo Municipio, 6).

The press conference was attended by mayor Antonio DeCaro, the president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation Angelo Binaghi and the Sports Councilor Pietro Petruzzelli.

«It is an emotion for us to host the Davis Cup here – said the mayor Antonio DeCaro - symbolically it has great value in a particular moment of Italian tennis in which it has become popular again, thanks to the great results obtained by our champions. The number of young people who are approaching sport is increasing more and more and this is important because sport is an essential vehicle for teaching young people to respect the rules which then become rules of life. In the city we have been working for some time now to promote sporting activity throughout the territory, both by collaborating with sports federations to involve an ever-increasing number of citizens and through the creation of equipped and widespread areas that make sport accessible to all".

«Being in Bari means giving meaning to our history. Puglia took the lion's share in the South, marking the last forty years of Italian tennis - he has declared Angelo Binaghi –. In Bari we played ten matches between Davis and Fed Cup, today Billie Jean King Cup, with two extraordinary athletes from Puglia, like Pennetta and Vinci, two girls with great values ​​like Sinner. We started in 2006, when we won the first Fed Cup. They said we were lucky, now we have great prospects. Tennis in Italy has now become a national-popular phenomenon, we have football audiences. It is a golden age of Italian tennis. Now let's reap the fruits of an extraordinary generation of kids, first Berrettini, Now Sinner, then musetti, Arnaldi, cobolli, Darderi. These latest successes of Jannik they were a violent acceleration of this path. The average age of our kids is extraordinarily low, which is why I say that these results are the beginning of a cycle that will last at least ten years. Jannik will also lose, it's normal and we will be close to him, protecting him. But the champion is there, the history of Italian tennis will change if we find a player capable of staying at the top of the world for ten years, as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic did: Sinner has all the characteristics to do so, he is already on the right path ».

«The Davis Cup stops in Bari due to the fact that our city hosted a match of the prestigious tennis tournament in 1991, the oldest in the world – said the councilor Pietro Petruzzelli - with the constant aim of promoting new sports disciplines, we are building the first pickleball court in the city, inside the Palamartino, a rapidly growing sport that combines elements of tennis and padel. We will then continue the collaboration with the four city tennis clubs to organize demonstrations and events that encourage the passion for sport in our community. The municipal administration will always be ready to support any major national or international event organized in the city."