Italian Court Great Nicola Pietrangeli Passes Away at 92
The tennis champion stands as one of only three Italian men to win a major singles title.
Italian sport is mourning a genuine icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a double French Open champion, passed away at 92.
Pietrangeli etched his name by becoming the first Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, achieving his first triumph at the French Open in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy the following year.
With an impressive 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was widely considered the country's greatest ever player until the emergence of current world number two and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is grieving an icon. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the World Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," announced the national federation.
Beyond his pair of French Open successes, Pietrangeli also finished as runner-up in Paris in the years 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a remarkable 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, winning 120 of them, and spearheaded his country to its first title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, an event where he was a double winner, commented: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
