Italian Tennis Great Nicola Pietrangeli Has Died at Ninety-Two
The tennis champion remains among a select trio of Italian men to claim a major singles title.
Italian sport mourns a true icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, left us at ninety-two.
He carved his legacy by emerging as the pioneering Italian to capture a Grand Slam singles title, earning his first triumph at the French Open in 1959 and successfully defending the coveted trophy a year later.
With a staggering 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was universally regarded as the country's greatest ever player prior to the emergence of current world number two and four-times major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is mourning an icon. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has died," confirmed the Italian Tennis Federation.
Beyond his pair of French Open triumphs, Pietrangeli also reached the final in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He set a record 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, securing victories in 120 of them, and guided his country to its first title in 1976.
Officials of the Italian Open, an event where he was a double winner, stated: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a veritable legend of Italian tennis..."
