The Federal Council of the Italian Tennis Federation FIT appointed former Italian tennis player Filippo Volandri as the new captain of the Italian Davis Cup team. Volandri replaces 1976 Davis Cup champion Corrado Barazzutti, who ended his 20-year period on 31st December 2020. Barazzutti also worked as Fed Cup captain between 2002 and 2016, winning four titles.
Volandri reached a career-high of world number 25 in the ATP Ranking and qualified for the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2007 achieving the best resulta t Grand Slam level. That year the 39-year-old former player born in Livorno beat Roger Federer 6-2 6-4 in the Rome Internazionali d’Italia. He went on to beat Tomas Berdych reaching the semifinal, where he lost to Fernando Gonzales 1-6 2-6.
Volandri turned professional in 1997 and won his maiden ATP title in St. Poelten (Austria) in 2004. He claimed his second ATP title on clay Palermo in 2007. He played in 17 matches in his career and has a 10-7 win-loss record at this event.
“I thank the Federal Council for their confidence in me. At this very important moment in my career as a coach, I have to give a very heartfelt thank you to Corrado Barazzutti, who was just named captain of the Davis Cup team and made me debut in Davis Cup, even though I was still a young player. I look forward to honouring this position as he did”.
Volandri will make his debut as captain of the Italian Davis Cup team next November, when Italy will face the United States and Colombia in the round robin group E. The ITF Board approved the proposal to expand the number of host cities from one to three. The Davis Cup Finals will become an 11-day event. The 2021 edition is set to take place from 25 November to 9 December. Turin, the venue of the ATP Finals from 2021 to 2025, is bidding to host two round round-robin groups and a quarter final of the revamped Davis Cup.
