Italian Tennis Great Nicola Pietrangeli Has Died at the Age of 92
The tennis champion stands as among a select trio of Italian men to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Italian sport mourns a true legend: Nicola Pietrangeli, a double French Open champion, has died at the age of 92.
The player made history by emerging as the pioneering Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, achieving his first triumph at the French Open in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy a year later.
With a remarkable 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was universally regarded as the nation's greatest ever player prior to the advent of current world number two and four-times major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is grieving an legend. Nicola Pietrangeli, the sole Italian enrolled in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has died," announced the Italian Tennis Federation.
Alongside his pair of French Open successes, Pietrangeli also was the finalist in Paris in the years 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a remarkable 164 matches played for Italy in the prestigious team competition, securing victories in 120 of them, and guided his country to its first title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, an event where he was a two-time winner, commented: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
