Nicola Pietrangeli, Italy’s most accomplished tennis player before Jannik Sinner, dies at 92

ROME (AP) — Nicola Pietrangeli, the Italian tennis champion of the 1950s and 1960s whose records were only recently broken by Jannik Sinner — but remains the winningest Davis Cup player of all time — has died. He was 92.

The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation announced Pietrangeli’s passing on Monday, without providing a cause of death. The federation noted that Pietrangeli is the only Italian player who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Rafael Nadal, who was often awarded the Italian Open trophy by Pietrangeli when he won the Rome tournament a record 10 times, posted in Italian on X: “I just heard the sad news about the passing of an Italian and world tennis great. My sincerest condolences to his family, his son Filippo and the entire Italian tennis family. RIP Nicola.”

Pietrangeli was the first Italian player to win a Grand Slam trophy, triumphing at the French Open in 1959. He defended that title a year later and his record of two Grand Slam singles titles among Italian players wasn’t broken until Sinner won his second straight Australian Open title in 2025 to increase his total to three.

Sinner has now won four majors.

“I won $150 for the 1960 title, which covered two months rent for my home in Rome,” Pietrangeli told the Gazzetta dello Sport in 2020.

Pietrangeli was also runner-up at Roland Garros in 1961 and 1964, losing both finals to Spanish player Manuel Santana. He won the doubles title in Paris in 1959 with Orlando Sirola.

“In 1964 Santana and I made a bet whereby the loser would pay for dinner,” Pietrangeli said. “I honored the agreement and 10 of us went out that night, including our wives, and Manolo invited (Spanish soccer player) Luisito Suárez,” Pietrangeli said. “I spent my entire earnings from the tournament to cover the evening.”

Pietrangeli also reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1960 and the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in 1957.

“Nicola Pietrangeli was not only the first to teach us what it really meant to win, on and off the court. He was the starting point for everything that our tennis (movement) has become,” said Italian federation president Angelo Binaghi.

Davis Cup records

In Davis Cup, Pietrangeli holds the record for most total wins and most singles wins, having played 164 matches for Italy in 66 ties. His singles record was 78-32 and his doubles record was 42-12. He also formed half of the most successful Davis Cup doubles partnership with Sirola, the pair winning 34 of their 42 matches together.

As a player, Pietrangeli led Italy to the Davis Cup final twice, losing both times away to an Australia team featuring Rod Laver and Roy Emerson.

Pietrangeli finally raised the Davis Cup trophy as captain in 1976, when he coached Adriano Panatta, Corrado Barazzutti, Paolo Bertolucci and Antonio Zugarelli to the title with a win over Chile played amid the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

There were calls for Italy not to travel to Chile but Pietrangeli pushed for the Azzurri to go.

“That was really my biggest contribution for that final,” Pietrangeli said. “Without me, Italy would have not traveled to that final and we wouldn’t have won.”

Italy didn’t win the Davis Cup again until Sinner led the Azzurri to the title in 2023 and 2024; and then Matteo Berrettini and Flavio Cobolli led Italy to a third straight Davis Cup — and first on home soil — in Bologna last month.

Stadio Pietrangeli

After his playing and coaching career was finished, Pietrangeli became a sort of “godfather” for Italian tennis. He was a fixture in the front row at the Foro Italico for the Italian Open, a tournament he won in 1957 and 1961 — beating Laver in the latter final.

In 2006, the statue-lined Pallacorda court at the Foro Italico — considered one of the most picturesque stadiums on the circuit — was renamed Stadio Pietrangeli. Pietrangeli said he wanted his funeral to be held on the court named after him.

Nicola Chirinsky Pietrangeli was born in Tunis, which was a French colony at the time, to an Italian father and a Russian mother.

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