Italian tennis icon Nicola Pietrangeli dies aged 92

Nicola Pietrangeli, a two-time winner of the French Open, has died on the age of 92, Italy’s tennis federation introduced on Monday (December 1, 2025).

“Italian tennis is mourning an icon. Nicola Pietrangeli, the one Italian inducted into the World Tennis Corridor of Fame, has died,” stated the FITP.

Born in Tunis in 1933 to an Italian father and Russian mom, Pietrangeli was broadly thought of the nation’s biggest ever tennis participant till the emergence of present world quantity two Jannik Sinner.

He was additionally top-of-the-line clay-court gamers of his technology, with three titles in Monte Carlo and his dwelling Italian Open match in Rome, the place a court docket is known as in his honour.

In complete Pietrangeli gained 44 singles titles over his profession, together with his two triumphs at Roland Garros in 1959 and 1960, and reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in the identical 12 months as his second French Open title.

An all-round sportsman, Pietrangeli performed for soccer crew Lazio till he was 18 years outdated, however he switched to tennis after the Rome-based membership tried to ship him away on mortgage.

Pietrangeli’s first victory at Roland Garros was the primary time any Italian participant had gained a Grand Slam and got here after he defeated South African Ian Vermaak within the last.

He additionally gained that 12 months’s doubles match, which again then was vastly in style, alongside his compatriot Orlando Sirola with whom he shaped a formidable pairing.

Gifted with a superb backhand, exact ball management, and spectacular stamina, he gained his second French Open title in 1960 in opposition to Chilean Luis Ayala earlier than being crushed twice within the 1961 and 1964 finals by Spaniard Manuel Santana.

Throughout the vast majority of his profession tennis was divided between amateurs, who performed within the conventional prime tournaments and the Davis Cup, and professionals who joined a parallel circuit as soon as they established a fame as a prime participant.

In contrast to his contemporaries Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall, Pietrangeli didn’t flip skilled till the start of the Open period in 1968, by which period he was in his mid-30s.

After his retirement Pietrangeli, a fan of the excessive life, grew to become a media character, presenting in style sports activities programme La Domenica Sportiva and showing in three movies.

“If I’d skilled tougher I’d have gained extra, however I’d have had much less enjoyable,” he as soon as stated.

Pietrangeli was additionally a Davis Cup stalwart, enjoying a report 164 matches for Italy, though he by no means managed to win it as a participant, dropping the ultimate in 1960 and 1961.

He racked up these appearances between 1954 and 1972, however he didn’t style success within the worldwide match till 1976 when he captained his nation to its first title.