Italian Court Great Nicola Pietrangeli Dies at 92
The tennis champion is one of only three Italian men to win a major singles title.
Italian sport says goodbye to a authentic legend: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, passed away at 92.
He carved his legacy by emerging as the first Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, earning his maiden triumph at Roland Garros in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy the following year.
With an impressive 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was widely considered the country's finest player prior to the rise of current world number two and four-times major winner Jannik Sinner.
"Italian tennis is in mourning for an titan. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the World Tennis Hall of Fame, has died," stated the Italian Tennis Federation.
Alongside his two French Open successes, Pietrangeli also was the finalist in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He set a record 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, winning 120 of them, and led his country to its maiden title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, an event where he was a double winner, said: "We are profoundly saddened that we say goodbye to Nicola Pietrangeli, a veritable legend of Italian tennis..."
