Malaga-Rome-Cagliari. Two suitcases, the adrenaline still flowing, the phone to deal with and it's difficult. But the Cup of Dreams is already on its way to the Capital.
President Binaghi, how did you celebrate?
"In the field. And then, before going with some federal councilors to celebrate Davis, we went to greet the players while they were having dinner. I have been a modest player, but I understand when it is possible to go and talk to the team and when they want to be alone. But a greeting was in order."
Let's start with the very latest: you will not go to President Mattarella.
"Not for now. Immediately after receiving the invitation, together with Minister Abodi we tried to match the dates and commitments, but the players urgently need to train outdoors and on the fast track before the Australian trip. We'll see each other before the end of January. I was struck by the note from the Quirinale, surely someone will have played to denigrate us."
But there was a need to play them like that to poor Malagò…
«Play them? I do not think so. We come from a sensational final in Turin, did you hear that? We are vice world champions of the women's Davis Cup, have you heard? We are returning from the most successful indoor edition of Italian sport, have you heard? We turned the Internazionali di Roma into a 14-day world tournament, breaking all box office records, have you heard that? Sinner has won Montpellier, Toronto, Vienna and Beijing, padel is an uncontrollable phenomenon. He could have at least complimented us, he only did it now and I thank the guys who helped him find a bit of intellectual serenity."
The evil ones say that you pushed the chair of the CONI with your shoulder.
«But no, he can keep it as long as they allow him, but it would be nice to have a president of the Coni of all, who also compliments those who think differently from him. And we are among them."
Pre-tactics: Before the final, he said we were underdogs and tired.
«I confirm it, Sinner couldn't get up, he went back to bed after breakfast, at noon on Sunday he couldn't stand. The greatest fortune is to have such a serious athlete, who loves work, commitment and who doesn't hold back."
Foro Italico, ATP Finals, then Davis: is it Binaghi's platinum year or will the best always be next year?
«It's not my year, it's a ruling class that took over the most disastrous discipline in Italy, we were poor, ugly and bad, without money and players, with large swathes of corruption within our system. Today we are beautiful, with the best players in the world, and we are rich because we have created a positive and profitable system. Private individuals and public bodies today know what a gold mine tennis is. And our athletes are extraordinary kids, before being champions on the field."
How do we achieve this success? How important is the sample or in our case, the steel group?
«You get there by saying no to a lot of people. Being able to say no, this is what a manager must do."
At the ATP Finals in Turin you had lunch and dinner with Petrucci, what's cooking?
«Just friendship, gratitude towards our sports father, who taught us so much».
During the awards ceremony in Malaga he wanted Nicola Pietrangeli to pose alongside the team.
«Nicola is the best in our history. With his flaws, but he is a gentleman, a gentleman who gave much more to tennis than he took."
Is there a passage - from Bologna to Malaga - in which you thought "this time we'll take it"?
«Never, as often happens. As with Paolo Rossi in Spain or in the European football championships, you win in a daring way the very edition in which you had already lost. We said last year that we wanted to win the Davis Cup in four years, we are two early."
He was moved when talking about the Engineer, his father. What would he have told her?
«For him, like for most Italians, the Davis Cup was "the event". Today it's very compressed, it doesn't give any points, but Davis remains. When I returned from a trip, he always had obsessive attention to detail. He would have smiled."
Is Sinner really such a nice guy, so perfect no matter how you look at him? «Many people didn't understand Sinner well. He is the most intelligent tennis player I have ever met, with an education and work culture never seen before."
You are a tennis player and know the mechanics very well. What does it mean to cancel three match points against a world number one who is so structured also mentally?
«Not only that, he is the best player in history. A monster who has won everything, always. And you who beat him like that have two huge balls, you are a player of an exceptional level and you can give beyond your best for your country."
We close with best wishes for a speedy recovery to Captain Garbin.
«I have already asked them publicly. I was the first to know about his health problem. This is a battle we will win together. She knows it."