Azzurri Court Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Passes Away at 92
The tennis champion is among a select trio of Italian men to secure a major singles title.
Italian sport mourns a true icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a double French Open champion, left us at the age of 92.
He carved his legacy by emerging as the first Italian to secure a Grand Slam singles title, earning his first triumph at the French Open in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy a year later.
With a staggering 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was widely considered the nation's greatest ever player prior to the advent of current world number two and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is grieving an legend. Nicola Pietrangeli, the sole Italian inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," announced the Italian Tennis Federation.
In addition to his two French Open successes, Pietrangeli also reached the final in Paris in the years 1961 and 1964.
He boasts a record 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, winning 120 of them, and guided his country to its first title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, an event where he was a double winner, stated: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
