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Italian Open 2024 Preview: When is it, who is playing and what is the prize money?


It has been a sensational fortnight of action in Madrid, but the clay court competition keeps on coming with the 81st Italian Open just on the horizon.

And we, at Tennishead, have all the information you need to know about the joint 1000 event in Rome:

When is the Italian Open 2024?

The Italian Open main draw will kick off with the WTA tournament on Tuesday 7th May, with the ATP main event starting a day later on Wednesday 8th May.

Finals weekend will take place on Saturday 18th May (Women’s Singles and Doubles Finals), and Sunday 19th May (Men’s Singles and Doubles Finals).

Play on most days will begin at 11pm local time (10am BST), with evening sessions starting at 7pm in Rome (6pm BST).

The qualifying draws will be conducted over Monday 6th May and Tuesday 7th May.

Where is the Italian Open held?

The Italian Open will be held at the Foro Italiano for a 14th year in 2024, a complex that is home to many sports venues in the heart of Rome. There are a total of 14 clay courts in the tennis centre, with nine of those used for matches.

Campo Centrale is the biggest of those and can hold a total of 10,584 spectators, with Stadio Pietrangeli the second largest court possessing 3,500 seats.

Who is playing the Italian Open 2024?

Both the ATP and WTA draws consist of 96 players, with the top 32 seeds receiving byes to the second round.

Novak Djokovic is the top seed in the men’s field, with the world No.1 set to make his return to action after skipping the Madrid Open.

Djokovic is a six-time champion in the Italian capital, with his most recent title coming in 2022.

There have been some casualties in the men’s field however, with both Jannik Sinner (hip injury) and Carlos Alcaraz (right arm injury) withdrawing from the tournament.

This leaves defending champion Daniil Medvedev as the second seed, but the Russian is also a doubt after retiring from his Madrid Open quarter-final match with a similar hip problem to the aforementioned Sinner.

Other former winners of the Italian Open in the ATP entry list this year are Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev.

Nadal has won 69 of his 77 matches at the historic tournament, as the record 10-time champion looks to continue his progress ahead of the second Grand Slam of the year.

Wildcards have been awarded to an all Italian lineup of Fabio Fognini, Matteo Gigante, Andrea Vavassori, Giulio Zeppieri and Stefano Napolitano, after Matteo Berrettini gained direct access to the main draw.

Iga Swiatek leads the WTA field for a third consecutive year, with the two-time Italian Open winner looking to regain her title.

The Pole was on a 15-match winning streak in Rome, before retiring in her quarter-final against eventual champion Elena Rybakina last year.

Aryna Sabalenka will be the second seed, but the Belarusian has only surpassed the third round in her five previous appearances at the WTA 1000 tournament.

Other top seeds in the women’s singles draw include Coco Gauff, Qinwen Zheng, Marketa Vondrousova, Maria Sakkari and 2022 finalist Ons Jabeur.

The other former Italian Open champion joining Swiatek and Rybakina is 2017 and 2018 winner Elina Svitolina.

Like the men’s draw, current wildcards have been handed to exclusively home players with 2014 finalist Sara Errani, Martina Trevisan, Lucrezia Stefanini Nuria Brancaccio, Matilde Paoletti, Giorgi Pedone, Federica Di Sarra and Vittoria Paganetti all receiving entry to their home WTA 1000 tournament.

How many ranking points are on offer at the Italian Open 2024?

Ranking points are becoming even more essential, with the race to the Paris Olympics coming to a close after Roland Garros.

Here is a breakdown of the points on offer in Rome over the next two weeks:

Event W F SF QF R16 R32 R64 R128 Q Q2 Q1
Men’s singles 1000 650 400 200 100 50 30 10 20 10 0
Men’s doubles 600 360 180 90 0 — — — — —
Women’s singles 650 390 215 120 65 35 10 30 20 2
Women’s doubles 10 — — — — —

What is the prize money for the Italian Open 2024?

The Italian Open is offering a total prize pot of €7,877,020 to the men’s tournament, in comparison to only $5,509,771 for the same women’s event.

Here is a breakdown of that:

Event W F SF QF R16 R32 R64 R128
Men’s singles €963,225 €512,260  €284,590 €161,995 €88,440 €51,665 €30,255 €20,360
Women’s singles €699,690 €365,015 €192,405 €99,160 €52,480 €30,435 €16,965 €10,495
Men’s Doubles* €391,680 €207,360 €111,360 €55,690 €29,860 €16,320       –         –
Women’s doubles Currently unavailable       –       –      –     –       –       –         –

*Per team

Previous winners of the Italian Open

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have dominated the Italian Open in the 21st century, with the pair claiming 16 of the past 19 singles titles at the tournament.

Last year was a rare occasion that neither Nadal and Djokovic did not lift the men’s singles title, with Daniil Medvedev winning his first ever clay court title after beating Holger Rune in the final.

In the history of the women’s singles tournament, Chris Evert is the most successful player with five titles to her name.

Elena Rybakina joined the winner’s circle in Rome last year, after her final opponent Anhelina Kalinina was forced to retire due to injury.

Here are all of the Italian Open champions in the past 10 years:

Year Men’s Singles Champion Women’s Singles Champion Men’s Doubles Champions Women’s Doubles Champions
2014 Novak Djokovic (3) Serena Williams (3) Daniel Nestor (4) & Nenad Zimonjic (3) Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik
2015 Novak Djokovic (4) Maria Sharapova (3) Pablo Cuevas & David Marrero Timea Babos & Kristina Mladenovic
2016 Andy Murray Serena Williams (4) Bob Bryan (4) & Mike Bryan (4) Martina Hingis (2) & Sania Mirza
2017 Alexander Zverev Elina Svitolina Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Nicolas Mahut Martina Hingis (3) & Chan Yung-jan (2)
2018 Rafael Nadal (8) Elina Svitolina (2) Juan Sebastian Cabal & Robert Farah Ash Barty & Demi Schuurs
2019 Rafael Nadal (9) Karolina Pliskova Juan Sebastian Cabal (2) & Robert Farah (2) Ash Barty (2) & Victoria Azarenka
2020 Novak Djokovic (5) Simona Halep Marcel Granollers (2) & Horacio Zeballos Hsieh Su-wei (3) & Barbora Strycova
2021 Rafael Nadal (10) Iga Swiatek Nikola Mektic & Mate Pavic Sharon Fichman & Giuliana Olmos
2022 Novak Djokovic (6) Iga Swiatek (2) Nikola Mektic (2) & Mate Pavic (2) Veronika Kudermetova & Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
2023 Daniil Medvedev Elena Rybakina Hugo Nys & Jan Zielinski Storm Hunter & Elise Mertens

How can you watch the Italian Open 2024?

You can watch the Italian Open on Sky Sports or Now TV in the United Kingdom and Ireland, or on Tennis Channel in the United States of America.

For more information on how you can watch the joint event in in your location, visit either the official ATP website here or the official WTA website here.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.