Sinner, Bolelli and Vavassori wrote a historic chapter in Italian tennis in Rome. They did so exactly 50 years after Adriano Panatta’s legendary victory in 1976, when the Italian saved 11 match points to win the Internazionali, bringing the trophy back into Italian hands with renewed excitement. Behind the 2026 trophy lies a backdrop of figures, including 470 million euros in social benefits, 113 million more than in 2025.
What do the 2026 Internazionali BNL d’Italia really leave behind?
A major tournament does not end on finals Sunday. It leaves measurable traces in club membership registrations, hotel stays, spending during a spring week, and in the habits of those who devoted ten evenings on the sofa to following it. The sports economy is precisely this: measuring what remains once the lights of the Centre Court go out.
Within this framework, OpenEconomics — which has long analysed the social and environmental impact of tennis — returns once again in 2026, together with the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation (FITP), to quantify the impact of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The analysis confirms the direction of previous editions, with continued growth across almost all indicators, and includes two specific areas of focus: the quantification of psycho-physical wellbeing benefits and a greater emphasis on monitoring new players generated by the event.
The ESG outlook also remains solid. The overall rating stays at AA+, in line with 2025. The four dimensions show one-notch variations. Social remains stable at AA+, Governance moves from AAA to AA+, and Environment from AA+ to AA, while all dimensions remain above the double-A threshold.
Social benefits reach €470 million: +32% in one year
The headline figures show that the “sports economy” of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia is accelerating. Total social benefits reached €470 million, compared with €357 million in 2025 and €258 million in 2024. In two years, the value generated for society has almost doubled: +83% compared with 2024 and +32% on the previous edition.
SROI keeps pace. It stands at 7.2, broadly stable compared with 2025. This is a significant point: it means that the tournament increased the absolute scale of the value generated without losing efficiency in converting costs incurred into social benefits produced. Every euro invested continues to return €7.2 to society.
The structure of benefits has shifted compared with 2025. Sports participation accounts for 51% in 2026 (down from 61% in 2025): in absolute terms it still grows, but less rapidly than the other categories. Spectator experience rises to 29% (from 23%): it is the category accelerating the most. Tourism accounts for 18% (previously 16%). The remaining 2% is a category introduced in more recent international studies and relates to psycho-physical wellbeing.
Psycho-physical wellbeing: a new category enters the analysis
The 2% of social benefits attributed to psycho-physical wellbeing is small in proportion, but still significant, because it allows the explicit illustration of measurable effects on personal mental and physical wellbeing: reduced perceived stress, improved mood, sense of belonging, and satisfaction linked to active or passive participation in the event.
This is a category that is becoming standard within international SROI models. Including it in the Italian analysis aligns the framework with what is already done for major Anglo-Saxon sporting events measured according to Sport England criteria.
For decision-makers, the message is twofold: individual wellbeing is a fully-fledged, measurable asset, and sporting events generate positive impacts in a robust and consistent way.
Nearly 7,000 new players, including 3,982 retained
The participation data best describes the legacy of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The 2026 edition generated 6,969 new tennis players. But the figure that really matters is the second one: 3,982 remained active, meaning they did not abandon the activity after the first year.
In terms of persistence rate, this equates to 57%. In organised sport, this is a high figure: across all disciplines, most new participants drop out within the first six to twelve months. It is the real metric used to assess an event’s ability to build lasting sporting habits, rather than simply generating a temporary spike in media interest.
The tournament is therefore not merely a showcase. It is a genuine accelerator of sports participation, with effects extending to clubs, tennis schools, sports retail and, more broadly, the active share of the population.
Audience: 420,000 spectators, growing again compared with 2025
Attendance figures for 2026 confirm the event’s international standing: 417,000 total spectators, including 243,000 unique attendees. In 2025, 392,000 paying spectators had been recorded; the metric is slightly different, but the trend remains consistent: physical attendance continues to expand.
These figures place the Internazionali BNL d’Italia firmly among the leading Masters 1000 tournaments. This directly fuels the 30% share of social benefits linked to spectator experience, a share that rises by seven points compared with the 23% recorded in 2025, and which is the primary driver behind the increase in total benefits.
Why measuring matters — and why it must be done every year
Growth across almost all indicators should not be taken for granted. An event can expand in absolute terms — more spectators, more revenue, greater media coverage — while simultaneously losing social efficiency, with a declining SROI. In the case of the 2026 Internazionali, the opposite occurs: the 32% increase in social benefits comes without eroding the multiplier. It is exactly the combination institutions and investors look for when deciding whether to support a major event.
For FITP and the Italian sports system, building this historical series — as already done for the Nitto ATP Finals — means having a genuine sports policy guidance tool. It makes it possible to demonstrate that major Italian tennis events are not expenditures, but investments with a documented and increasingly scalable multiplier. For the next edition, the question will not be how to do more. It will be understanding where growth can still generate even greater value.
In the meantime, congratulations Jannik, Simone and Andrea!
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