Italian Court Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Dies at 92
The tennis champion is one of only three Italian men to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Italian sport says goodbye to a genuine icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, left us at ninety-two.
The player made history by emerging as the first Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, earning his maiden triumph at the French Open in 1959 and successfully defending the coveted trophy the following year.
With a remarkable 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was universally regarded as the country's greatest ever player prior to the advent of current star and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is in mourning for an legend. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," stated the Italian Tennis Federation.
In addition to his two French Open victories, Pietrangeli also finished as runner-up in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a remarkable 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, securing victories in 120 of them, and spearheaded his country to its first title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, where he was a double winner, said: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a veritable legend of Italian tennis..."
