Learn Italian: Il capitano è pronto per il torneo. - The captain is ready for the tournament.

The adjective pronto requires the preposition per when followed by a noun to express what someone is ready for. If it were followed by a verb (ready to do something), you could use either per or a plus the infinitive, such as pronto per giocare or pronto a giocare. But with a noun like il torneo, it must be per.

Why didn't per and il combine into a single word here?

In modern Italian, the preposition per does not merge with definite articles. While prepositions like a, di, and in combine with il to make al, del, and nel, per always stays separate as two words: per il, per la, per i, and so on.

If the captain were a woman, how would this sentence change?

If you use the feminine form la capitana, the adjective must agree with it and become feminine too: La capitana è pronta per il torneo. While historically il capitano was used as a masculine noun for both men and women, la capitana is widely accepted and used in modern Italian.