Italian Tennis Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Has Died at Ninety-Two
The tennis champion is among a select trio of Italian men to secure a major singles title.
Italian sport is mourning a authentic icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a double French Open champion, passed away at 92.
The player made history by emerging as the first Italian to secure a Grand Slam singles title, securing his first 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 nation's greatest ever player prior to the rise of current star and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"The sport in Italy is mourning an titan. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has died," confirmed 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 double winner, stated: "We are profoundly saddened that we say goodbye to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
