Italy's Court Icon Nicola Pietrangeli Passes Away at the Age of 92
The tennis champion remains one of only three Italian men to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Italian sport mourns a authentic legend: Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time French Open champion, has died at ninety-two.
The player made history by becoming the pioneering Italian to capture a Grand Slam singles title, achieving his initial triumph at the French Open in 1959 and retaining the coveted trophy the following year.
With a staggering 48 career titles, Pietrangeli was long held to be the nation's finest player prior to the emergence of current world number two and four-time 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 passed away," announced the Italian Tennis Federation.
Alongside his pair of French Open successes, Pietrangeli also finished as runner-up in Paris in both 1961 and 1964.
He boasts 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.
Officials of the Italian Open, an event where he was a double winner, commented: "It is with deep sadness that we say goodbye to Nicola Pietrangeli, a true legend of Italian tennis..."
