Inside The Tour | 2025 Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

It's my first time doing these things, so obviously I'm a little awkward and embarrassed, but it's nice to have a familiar face to do it with. So Mimiu and I, we're collaborating with New Balance to design my kits for Rome, Cincinnati and Berlin, so I'm super excited for that. We want to surprise her with the WTM tournament. Let's see how it goes. And this is where I've dreamed to be my whole life, so I have to have fun, you know. This is my precious beauty. This is my fragrance. I guess I'm not as much of a gelato queen as I thought. It's a different way to get to the Fontana di Trevi. I've been here for like a week, but I've never came to visit, so I think it's really nice. It's my first time doing these things, so obviously I'm a little awkward and embarrassed, but it's nice to have a familiar face to do it with. I know there's two types of players. There's one that never checks the draws, but I study to the bone draws. I love to see who everyone plays. Being here in front of the Trevi Fountain is really cool. I've always played sports since I was very, very young. You know, at heart, I definitely feel Italian. I mean, I'm half Italian, half American, but I was born in Italy, and I grew up there. I still live there. I do school there. All my friends are there. So I think it's just like I just feel closer to Italian culture, and I feel more Italian myself. 17-year-old Tyra Caterina Grant has returned home to Rome, and she will contest her second tour-level match today and do so as a newly-minted Italian. My grandma was definitely really happy. I think my grandpa was the happiest out of all of them, so it was nice to see them. Oh, what a way to make a statement. It was cool to see, you know, so much reaction, and with the fact that I'm switching, it's like big news, and obviously it doesn't happen often in the tour that the players switch nationalities, so I understand that there might be some attention to it. I'm just super happy to be back in Rome, and winning Madrid definitely gives you some confidence, and I really hope that I can do well here in Rome. I feel better than ever before on clay, and I know that physically and mentally I'm ready to play as long as I need to win each match, so I really hope. To play here, I was here when I was a child to watch the tournament. It's amazing to be back and, you know, really enjoying the tournament, really enjoying the fans. They are so loud, so many are here, so hopefully it's going to be a great addition. I think the Stadio Pietrangeli is one of the best, maybe it's the best stadium on tour, and it's amazing, and you can really feel the history there. Yeah, the Centre Court as well, it's good because it's full of people, but the Pietrangeli, it's my favourite. Yeah, honestly, even without the wins previous years, I would love to come back here. I love this place. It feels like it's close to home as well. There are a lot of, you know, Polish people around, good food, you know, good atmosphere. So, yeah, Rome is for sure one of my favourite places to be and to play at, so the site also, you know, everywhere is better. The tournament is developing, so I love to see that, and I think it's a great place to play tennis. Well, I know a couple of words, kind of expressions I can share. I know vive Italia, mi piace Roma, voglio bere, voglio mangiare pizza napoletana, and also like an expression, chi va piano va sano e lontano, chi va forte va incontro alla morte. Mimì and I, we kind of started our relationship this year. They dressed me for the Oscars and the Vanity Fair, which was really cool, and I feel like tennis, with the rise of it, and necessarily tennis fashion, I feel like it was a, I think we all felt like it was a very natural thing to do. So, yeah, they're helping, they're collaborating with New Balance to design my kits for Rome, Cincinnati, and Berlin, so I'm super excited for that. You know, it's just something about growing with a brand, which I did with New Balance, I kind of grew with them, and hoping to grow with Mimì, and the logo is sick, and I think it's so cool, and I'm just excited to wear it. Mimì and tennis is, you know, New Balance and I, we do a lot of loud, bold prints, and New Balance and I, this one is a little bit more lax, a little bit more classic, a little bit more traditional, and it's definitely tennis core, very Demir. You know, that's kind of the best way to put it. It definitely feels like me, I got to, you know, pick the silhouette and the colors that I wanted to do, and I'm the one who chose the more traditional way, because I felt like I didn't want it to be too much of what New Balance and I have done before. I want it to be like a step in maybe a different direction. I feel like it could start a trend. I'm not obviously the first tennis player to work with a big designer brand, but to do it with a kit is something I don't think I've done, and do it all across three tournaments hasn't really been done before, so if other brands start doing it with different players, you guys know where they got the idea from. So this beautiful girl reached out on Twitter to meet her, so we want to surprise her with the WGN tournament. Let's see how it goes. Hi. How are you? Fine. All good? Sure. Do you like it? I love it. Please. Do you want to see my faces? It's for you. If you want me to sign it or you let me know what you want to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we speak Italian, Arabic? Arabic. A big heart for you. Thanks so much. Thank you for coming. Hello. Hello, nice to meet you. Hi, I'm Alex. Nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Alex. Thank you so much. No, no, no. No, super nice. Thank you. What's your best seller? Yeah, so I arrived. We're here in Rome. I arrived from Madrid two days ago. Obviously, so much has happened over the past two months, but I'm so, so happy trying to be in the moment. This is my first thousand competing as a direct entry in the main draw. Random people in Rome just coming up to me, and I never would have thought that I would be, you know, I would be recognized in a place so far away from home. If you think about where I came from, like where I started competing, you know, in the provinces, in the Philippines, you know, obviously it started traveling within my country to just try to get national points. And then it slowly, step by step, progressed. And now I'm playing in the biggest stages in the world for tennis. And this is where I've dreamed to be my whole life. So, so I have to have fun. You know, this is, this is, I'm enjoying so much. I was talking with my mom. There's a lot of vintage shops here, so I wanted to check those out if we had the chance. And that's another part of the Life On Tour that I find so, such a blessing is that you get to travel to places that are so hard to travel to, you know, just to see so many beautiful sights. And whenever I have free time, of course, I'll try to see, you know, I'll do touristy things. This beautiful Kate dress that I purchased in New York last year during US Open. Next item of my outfit is this amazing jacket. This is a Ukrainian brand called Louvy. I don't even think that this is actually on sale because I always go to their, like, showroom there. Sometimes they just make different pieces because they are trying things out. It just ends up to be my size. I bought these shoes last year in London. The brand is called The Row. Pair them with jeans, with, like, with dresses, as you can see, like, with different kinds of outfits because I think it's really a cool shoe for day and the night out. So this is the only brand of sunglasses that I own. They basically don't have 100% of UV protection. They actually allow your brain to understand that you're in the sun and produce hormones to protect your skin. This is my precious beauty. This is my fragrance. Honestly, I don't want to reveal what's the name. I love perfumes and mostly niche because they just have very complete and different smells. So to finish my look is my, one of my favorite bags that I own. I don't own many bags, but this one I bought in Paris last year. If you put the strap out, it's going to look more casual, but I hide it when I go for dinners because you just put it in your hand and yeah, it's like a small, like a mini bag that you can put your phones in or keys or credit card. And see you next time. I remember going all the time to the tournaments for my city by the train to Moscow, like 18 hours. So we had to sleep in the train, but they're comfortable. So, you know, you can like sleep there and stuff. We've got the whole room for you kind of. Yes, it's like shaking a bit, but yeah, it's really fast. Like the wind is taking. Yeah, no, it's good. I mean, Rome, it's an awesome place. Especially if you come here to enjoy as a tourist, I think it's great. To work, it's a different story. But as a tourist to enjoy, I think it's great or to watch tennis. It's like everything here is just to, you know, consume the joy. Yeah, the food is incredible. So you cannot try all the kind of food here because if you're an athlete and you play, you cannot. Plus all the aperitivos they have, like, I don't know how many kinds of aperitivo, which I would like to try personally, but I have no opportunity so far. Me too. You too? Because I have a rule. Yeah, she has her own rule. Which one? For example, when she cannot drink, I don't drink. Your ride's over. Oh, yeah? So we're at where? We're ready to go. I'm ready. Hi, everyone. I'm Sabrina Santamaria. Hi, I'm Juju Olmos. And we're here in Rome. And today we're going to do a gelato taste test. I can finish them when I'm done, right? Like when we're done. I don't want these to go to waste. Okay, wait, wait. But you can't. Oh, I don't know what that is. Coffee. Or do we rotate? I don't know. You're already losing. I'm already in there. Nocciola. Oh, good job, mija. High five? This one's hard. Are we both holding the cups? Yeah, we're both holding the cups. Chocolate. Oh, I guess chocolate. It was Nutella? I think I know what it is. Pistachio. Girl, what? Those are... Pistachio. You know it? Yeah, but let me double check. Vanilla. Oh, baby. It tastes like vanilla. I guess I'm not as much of a gelato queen as I thought. Ciao!