Italy's Tennis Legend Nicola Pietrangeli Has Died at 92
Nicola Pietrangeli remains among a select trio of Italian men to secure a major singles title.
Italian sport says goodbye to a true icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, passed away at the age of 92.
He carved his legacy by becoming the pioneering Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, securing 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 long held to be the country's greatest ever player prior to the rise of current world number two and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"Italian tennis is grieving an titan. Nicola Pietrangeli, the sole Italian enrolled in the World Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," stated the national federation.
Beyond his pair of French Open successes, Pietrangeli also reached the final in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a remarkable 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, winning 120 of them, and guided his country to its maiden title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, where he was a two-time winner, said: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
