Hi Elena, you’ve done a brilliant job

‘And there it is, happiness.’ It was that day in July; we all remember her voice – it was full of emotion. We could not see her eyes, but they must surely have been brimming with admiration, just as they always were whenever something wonderful happened in tennis – and not just in tennis.

At that moment, it came naturally to Elena Pero to mention Rino Tommasi, Gianni Clerici and Roberto Lombardi, as if to take a step back and pay tribute to her mentors, and she was saddened that they had not had the opportunity to report on an Italian’s victory at Wimbledon and, before that, an Italian’s appearance in the Wimbledon final (it was 2021 and, on that day too, as she took to the court, she had paid tribute to those who had gone before her).

Elena Pero was shy and curious, asking more questions than she gave answers, no matter who she was talking to – whether it was Paolo Bertolucci or an intern who, seeing her walking through the corridors, was learning to put a face to the ‘Voice of Tennis’.

Thirty-five years into her career, and the sense of wonder is still very much there – in those ‘what are we seeing?’ moments at three o’clock in the morning Italian time during a match between Sinner and Alcaraz at Indian Wells, and in that smile you could sense in her voice, which made even her listeners smile. She never missed a single one of Jannik Sinner’s training sessions; always a step behind and always attentive. If you asked her for a statistic, she’d pull a stack of notebooks with impeccable handwriting out of her locker, and inside was the statistic you were looking for. She was generous and meticulous; compliments embarrassed her, and she’d quickly change the subject. “Well done,” “No, they’re the ones who deserve the credit.”

She began commentating in the mid-1990s, at a time when it was hard even to imagine an Italian reaching the second week of Wimbledon; she chronicled the dark days, the emergence of the rivalry between Federer and Nadal and the arrival of Djokovic, and when the Italian team began to win, she remained true to her own style of commentary – something of which Rino Tommasi could have been proud. She wore glasses with thick frames, but her emotions were visible whenever she was moved or something amazed her. Sinner, for example. Sport in general.

No pedestals and no hashtags. Her tone of voice and her clarity have educated a public – perpetually torn between cheering for and against – about tennis and its unwritten rules. Through her example, Elena Pero has taught us that we can stand up for Sinner and for Alcaraz, for Federer and for Djokovic.

In a career spanning thirty-five years, were there any players who were unbearable, incomprehensible or boring, or any matches that perhaps would have been better never broadcast? No. For her, everyone deserved a question.

Those who shared a desk with her have written that she was even better as a person than she was as a journalist. As is being highlighted on Sky Sport at the moment, she has reached more Wimbledon finals than Roger Federer – fourteen in total, the last one on 12 July.

His latest match commentary concludes with these words: “A match that was not easy in the slightest ends with a winning forehand from Jannik Sinner, and for that reason we will remember it as infinitely beautiful.”