Journalistic career

The Beginnings (1948-1956)

Clerici’s debut in the world of journalism dates back to August 1948: during the Italian Second Division Championships, held right in his hometown of Como and in which he competed in doubles with Vincenzo Mei, Gianni was commissioned as a special correspondent by Umberto Mezzanotte, editor of the monthly magazine Il Tennis Italiano. His unmistakable writing style must have made an immediate impression, given the editor’s enthusiastic comment in the introduction to his first article:

“Clearly, Guido Rocca is setting a new standard with his brilliant, carefree style of journalism—a somewhat novel genre—and we are more than happy to ‘make way for the young’ in the world of writing as well.” Clerici’s contributions to the magazine continued, sporadically, until 1951, when Luigi Gianoli, who covered horse racing for La Gazzetta dello Sport, suggested Clerici’s name to editor Gianni Brera. The latter, whom Clerici described as “the only major writer who didn’t find it beneath him to cover sports, in a country plagued by rhetoricians and literary lobbies” (from the story Il Cavaliere, in Una notte con la Gioconda [Ver]), formed a special bond with him, which translated into years and years of brotherly friendship and collaboration. Clerici continued to write for the Gazzetta until 1954, the year in which Brera was forced to leave his post due to a falling-out with the owners. The two then joined forces and founded the weekly Sport Giallo, which Clerici described as “a less perverse Guerin Sportivo.” The project, which lasted only a couple of years, must have fallen victim to fierce competition and organizational instability: “[Brera] had found a couple of admirers-financiers. The two of us did all the work on the newspaper. Sport Giallo certainly didn’t generate much revenue. The others contributed from the outside and signed, I think, under pseudonyms” (Enrico Currò, Mario Fossati e la storia del giornalismo sportivo in Italia (1945–2010), Bolis Edizioni, Azzano San Paolo, BG, 2018).

A Wonderful misunderstanding (1956-1987)

1956 was a turning point: Enrico Mattei, then president of ENI, founded the daily newspaper Il Giorno in Milan to counterbalance the overwhelming dominance of Corriere della Sera. As sports editor, director Gaetano Baldacci chose Gianni Brera himself, who decided to bring Gianni Clerici along: “We went as a group to Il Giorno, trailing behind Brera. […] I went there, but it’s not like I wanted to be a journalist” (Enrico Currò, Mario Fossati…). What took shape was an exceptional young team, considered by many the pinnacle of sports newsrooms: Mario Fossati on cycling, Giulio Signori on track and field, Franco Grigoletti on basketball, and, of course, Gianni Clerici on tennis. Yet, with his usual irony, Clerici often downplayed the significance of his time at Il Giorno, describing his career as “a great misunderstanding, in what is mysteriously regarded as the benchmark newsroom of Italian journalism: perhaps because the many sports newsrooms of all time are of a discouraging standard” (Enrico Currò, Mario Fossati…). During his more than thirty years of collaboration with the newspaper, his contributions weren’t limited to tennis coverage but spanned a wide variety of sports: “I started out as a correspondent […]: the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France. I did my tennis stuff, for which Gianni Brera—who was sort of like an adopted uncle to me—had hired me at La Gazzetta dello Sport when I was nineteen. And then I had the basketball column, because I played all kinds of sports; I played basketball. I had the skiing column, above all, because I was a skier” (interviewed by Rivista Studio in 2012). Starting with the 1960 Rome edition, he even covered the Olympics. “The tennis guy”—a label Gianni often found himself saddled with during his career—does not, therefore, fully describe his involvement in the world of journalism, especially when considering his contributions beyond the court: from travel reports on the places visited for tournaments to lifestyle columns in the Sunday edition of Rotocalco. His first essays also date from this period: Il vero tennis (Longanesi, Milano 1965), Il tennis facile (Oscar Mondadori, Milano 1972) and Il grande tennis (1978).

In 1974, Mondadori published the first edition of his masterpiece, 500 anni di tennis, “the best-selling Italian book abroad after The Divine Comedy and Pinocchio,” as Enzo Biagi once remarked: it is a veritable “Bible” of tennis, an international success translated into six languages. To write this universal history, Gianni Clerici drew on materials preserved in the British Museum, which he frequented assiduously in the 1960s during the seasons he spent in London as the “deputy’s deputy correspondent” for Il Giorno. The meticulous statistical tables on players and tournaments were compiled by his friend Rino Tommasi, nicknamed “ComputeRino” by Clerici because of his infallible memory.

Between news stories and accolades (1987-2022)

In 1987, he received a call from Eugenio Scalfari, which led Gianni Clerici to La Repubblica, where he was reunited with Brera and Fossati, who had moved there in 1982; around the same time, he also began contributing to L’Espresso. In the pages of La Repubblica, he was given complete freedom to report on the “behind-the-scenes” world of sports and beyond: his profiles of champions are famous, starting with his first memorable article, dedicated to a Parisian wedding where the eccentric Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase stood out, having shown up “in shorts and tennis shoes.”
His television debut dates back to the 1980s: the odd couple Gianni Clerici and Rino Tommasi appeared on Canale 5, bringing the American model of two-person commentary to Italy. The format quickly proved to be a hit: in the years that followed, the Clerici-Tommasi duo moved to TelePiù (later Sky) and continued to provide commentary on the Grand Slam tournaments until 2011.
Overall, the new millennium has been very rewarding: in 2002, Clerici published Divina. Suzanne Lenglen, la più grande tennista del XX secolo (Corbaccio, Roma), a biography dedicated to the iconic French athlete, the author’s favorite. In 2006, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport for his long and distinguished career as a sports journalist and commentator:

In 2010, a collection of articles titled Gianni Clerici agli Internazionali d’Italia. Cronache dello scriba. 1930-2010 (Rizzoli, Milano). In 2013, it’s the turn of Wimbledon. Sessant’anni di storia del più importante torneo del mondo (Mondadori, Milano). In 2018, also published by Mondadori, Il tennis nell’arte. Racconti di quadri e sculture dall’antichità a oggi . It is from 2021 Il tennis facile. Manuale illustrato per neofiti e cultori del gioco (Baldini e Castoldi, Milano), an updated guide compiled in collaboration with Riccardo Piatti, whose accompanying photographs depict a young boy with red hair: Gianni’s career, which spanned well into his nineties, allowed him to recognize the crystal-clear talent of that young man—the same Jannik Sinner who, a few years later, has since established himself on the world’s biggest tennis stages, with triumphs in the Davis Cup and the Grand Slams.

Gianni Clerici passed away on June 6, 2022, leaving behind an intellectual legacy that is hard to match: more than 7,000 articles and some 30 novels, plays, poetry collections, and essays. Following his passing, his family decided to donate his archive and library to the “Raccolte Storiche” Documentation and Research Center at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Brescia. Mediaset also reported on the donation in a segment titled Un talento inimitabile: Gianni Clerici on the evening magazine show Studio Aperto Mag.