Italy's Court Legend Nicola Pietrangeli Passes Away at Ninety-Two
The tennis champion stands as one of only three Italian men to win a major singles title.
The world of tennis is mourning a genuine pioneer: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, has died at the age of 92.
The player made history by becoming the pioneering Italian to win a Grand Slam singles title, earning 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 nation's greatest ever player until the rise of current world number two and four-time major winner Jannik Sinner.
"Italian tennis is mourning an legend. Nicola Pietrangeli, the sole Italian enrolled in the World Tennis Hall of Fame, has passed away," stated 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 set a record 164 matches played for Italy in the Davis Cup, winning 120 of them, and led his country to its inaugural title in 1976.
Organisers of the Italian Open, an event where he was a two-time winner, said: "We are profoundly saddened that we bid farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli, a veritable legend of Italian tennis..."
