ROME (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner is dominating men’s tennis and Italy swept both the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup team titles last year.
Jasmine Paolini just became the first home player to win the Italian Open in 40 years and is about to move up to No. 4 in the women’s rankings.
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Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates a winning point during a round of sixteen match against Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Jasmine Paolini, of Italy, reacts to defeating Coco Gauff, of the United States, at the end of their Italian Open tennis match final, at the Foro Italico in Rome, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
People watch a training session between Italy's Lorenzo Sonego, serving bottom, and Italy's Jannik Sinner at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, May 6, 2025 (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, plays Norway's Casper Ruud during their quarterfinal tennis match at the Italian Open, at the Foro Italico, in Rome, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Players like Lorenzo Musetti, Federico Cinà and Tyra Caterina Grant provide the potential for Italy to dominate tennis for years to come.
Still, Italian Tennis and Padel Federation president Angelo Binaghi wants more. Much more.
Binaghi has the grandiose aim to make the Italian Open a fifth Grand Slam tournament alongside the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open — upending a century of tennis history.
“In what other part of society is there a monopoly that lasts for more than 100 years?” Binaghi said Sunday, the final day of the Italian Open. “Why are there always four and always the same four? … It's absolutely unfair and doesn’t help tennis grow.”
The Italian Open is a Masters Series event that is one rung below the Slams in the hierarchy of tennis tournaments. But the event at the Foro Italico now runs for two weeks like the majors and is booming thanks to the successes of Sinner, Paolini and many other Italian players.
Italy has also hosted the ATP Finals in Turin since 2021 and recently extended its hosting contract for the year-ending tournament featuring the top eight men's players through 2030. Also, the Davis Cup Final 8 will begin a three-year run in Italy this November, starting in Bologna.
“We’re now the world champion both on the court and at the organizational level,” Binaghi said.
Earlier this year, Binaghi expressed interest in acquiring the license for the Madrid Open, which immediately precedes Rome in the tennis calendar. The idea was that eliminating Madrid and making Rome bigger could constitute a fifth Slam.
“We need to be attentive on the international market and try to take advantage of every opportunity that arises, from the smallest ATP 250 all the way up to the biggest tournaments,” Binaghi said.
Tournaments in Indian Wells, California, and Miami have also been mentioned as possible fifth Slams.
“I mean, it would be great for me, because I’m trying to win one,” said Alexander Zverev, a two-time Rome champion, when asked about the possibility earlier this year. “Is it possible to make one? Yeah, for sure. … Is it going to be seen as a Grand Slam by everyone — by the media, by the players? I don’t know.”
Added former Wimbledon and U.S. Open finalist Ons Jabeur, “We need to improve the structure we have right now more than to have a fifth Grand Slam. I feel like we can do much better things with the four Grand Slams we have and do better for players, for media, and for everyone else around it.”
A request for comment sent to the Grand Slam board, which represents the four majors, was not immediately answered.
After years of delays, organizers announced new plans to build a retractable roof over the Italian Open’s main stadium, Campo Centrale.
At a cost of 60 million euros ($67 million), the roof is slated to be ready for the 2028 tournament and will also result in 2,000 extra seats being added — increasing the capacity to 12,500.
For this year’s tournament, the event grounds at the Foro Italico were increased from 12 to 20 hectares (30 to 50 acres) and another statue-lined competition arena was added.
The Stadio dei Marmi hosted three courts: a 3,000-seat arena and two courts each featuring seating for 800.
The 3,000-seat arena became the tournament’s third-largest show court after Campo Centrale and the Grand Stand Arena, making the Pietrangeli court — which also features an array of statues — the fourth largest.
AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich in Miami Gardens, Florida, contributed to this report.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Italy's Jannik Sinner celebrates a winning point during a round of sixteen match against Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, shares a light moment with Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Vatican Media via AP)
Jasmine Paolini, of Italy, reacts to defeating Coco Gauff, of the United States, at the end of their Italian Open tennis match final, at the Foro Italico in Rome, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
People watch a training session between Italy's Lorenzo Sonego, serving bottom, and Italy's Jannik Sinner at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, May 6, 2025 (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)
Italy's Jannik Sinner, left, plays Norway's Casper Ruud during their quarterfinal tennis match at the Italian Open, at the Foro Italico, in Rome, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
