Italian Tennis Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Passes Away at Ninety-Two
The tennis champion is among a select trio of Italian men to secure a Grand Slam singles title.
Italian sport says goodbye to a genuine icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, left us at 92.
Pietrangeli etched his name by emerging as the pioneering Italian to capture a Grand Slam singles title, earning his initial triumph at the French Open in 1959 and successfully defending the coveted trophy in 1960.
With a remarkable 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was long held to be the country's greatest ever player prior to the emergence of current star and four-times major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is grieving an legend. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," stated the national federation.
In addition to his pair of French Open victories, Pietrangeli also reached the final in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a remarkable 164 matches played for Italy in the prestigious team competition, winning 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 say goodbye to Nicola Pietrangeli, a veritable legend of Italian tennis..."
