Italy's Court Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Dies at Ninety-Two
The tennis champion remains among a select trio of Italian men to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Italian sport is mourning a authentic icon: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, has died at the age of 92.
The player made history by emerging as the pioneering Italian to secure a Grand Slam singles title, achieving his first triumph at Roland Garros in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy a year later.
With a staggering 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.
"The sport in Italy is in mourning for an titan. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian enrolled in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, has died," stated the Italian Tennis Federation.
Alongside his pair of French Open successes, Pietrangeli also reached the final in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He set a record 164 matches played for Italy in the prestigious team competition, winning 120 of them, and spearheaded his country to its first title in 1976.
Officials of the Italian Open, an event where he was a two-time winner, stated: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
