Top five players with most matches played at Italian Open in Open Era

Personal milestones of five players at the Italian Open over the years.

The Italian Open, officially known as the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, is a highly regarded tennis tournament and an annual fixture in Rome, Italy. Played at the Foro Italico, a venue of historical significance built in the 1920s and home to the Italian Open since 1934. 

Rome, the eternal city and home to the Colosseum, has seen many gladiatorial-style contests on the tennis courts of the Foro Italico complex. Among the many winners to grace the courts in Rome are the likes of Rod Laver, Nicola Pietrangeli, Björn Borg and Pete Sampras, to name a few.

Here, we shall cover five players who have pulled off the most match appearances in the Open Era at the  Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

5. Stan Wawrinka – 42 Matches

Stanislas Wawrinka, or Stan the Man, as he is also known as arrived on the tour at the same time as Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Wawrinka could thrive in the men’s game, and his explosive one-handed backhand was a handy tool in his skillset. But for the genial Swiss, Djokovic, Nadal, and his countryman Roger Federer seemed like mountains too high to climb. 

By 2014, the Wawrinka had made it to the Top 10 and won four minor titles. But his combined record against the trio of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic stood at 3-44.

In the 2015 French Open final, Wawrinka stood across the net from Novak Djokovic, who was on a 29-match win streak. But Wawrinka stopped the Serb in his tracks by hammering 60 winners in one of the Open Era’s astounding performances.  

Wawrinka’s 42 match appearances in Rome unfortunately yielded no titles, but he did come close twice. The first time was in the 2008 final against Djokovic, and the second occasion was when he faced Federer in the 2015 semifinal.

4. Guillermo Vilas – 46 Matches

When Vilas burst onto the pro tour in 1974 at age 21, the long-haired Argentine came from a country relatively unheard of to tennis fans in an era dominated by Europeans and Americans. The arrival of Vilas brought a whiff of the counterculture movement of the 1960s to the world of professional tennis.   

Vilas’ 46 appearances in Rome fetched the Argentine three final appearances and the title in 1980 against Frenchman Yannick Noah. His overall tally of 49 clay court wins pushed his winning percentage on the surface to 80%. Vilas stitched together an impressive 1977 season that gave him 16 titles and two majors. Fourteen of those sixteen wins were on clay. That year saw him end up with an overall win-loss record of 136-14. 

3. Roger Federer – 50 Matches

Roger Federer was the first among ‘The Big Three’ to enter the tennis scene, turning pro in 1998, followed by Nadal (2001) and Djokovic (2003). While clay would not figure in the Swiss maestro’s list of preferred surfaces – that honor would go to Wimbledon, where he won eight titles, Federer did make fifty appearances in the Rome Masters. 

Despite making it to four finals in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Federer could not add this particular trophy to his cabinet. This includes the marathon five-set final of 2006 that he lost to Nadal 7-6, 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-2, 6-7(5).

2. Rafael Nadal – 78 Matches

Nadal claimed the title of the ‘King of Clay’ early on in his career – a well-deserved one. Nadal has amassed a 478 – 47 (91%) win-loss record on his favorite surface. Among his 22 Grand Slam titles, 14 came on the clay courts of Paris. 

Nadal also notched up ten titles in the ATP Masters event in Rome – the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The Spaniard has a 69-8 record in the Italian capital. He has 63 titles on the clay and five straight wins on French soil between 2010 and 2014.

Nadal’s first title in Rome came in 2005, his second year on tour, and he went on to add two more in the following two years in an event he went on to reach 12 finals and maintain an 89% win rate.

The Spaniard along with Andre Agassi, was one of two men to add an Olympic singles gold medal to the career slam. 

1. Novak Djokovic – 79 Matches

When Novak Djokovic turned pro in 2003, the ATP Tour resembled a two-horse race, with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer dueling on their own, away from the rest of the field. But here was Djokovic from the non-traditional tennis center of Serbia to challenge them both for a place in the spotlight. 

Djokovic’s all-round game gave the Serb an advantage on the court. While he did not dominate the other two members of the big three, he went to take leads in the head-to-head against both men. 

Djokovic also had a stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking between 2011 and 2016. During those years of dominance, Djokovic picked up 12 majors and 30 ATP Masters 1000 titles.

In Rome, he has lifted the trophy six times, with three in a row between 2020 and 2022 and maintains a 67-11 win-loss record in the Masters event. Djokovic is also in his 425th cumulative week on top of the ATP table and has eight years’ worth in weeks at the No. 1 spot on the ATP rankings.

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