It can be said that without Nicola Pietrangeli, who died today at the age of 92, the sport of tennis in Italy might not have become so popular.
With good looks as a movie star, Pietrangeli mixed with the jet set, including Marcello Mastroianni, Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale among his acquaintances. On the court, it was his exceptional touch, movement and excellent backhand that helped him become one of the world’s leading clay court exponents in the late 1950s and 1960s.
In seven grand final appearances at Roland Garros, Pietrangeli captured four titles – most notably the singles (d. Vermaak) and men’s doubles (with Orlando Sirola) in 1959. The following year his socks were red with blood in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Chile’s Luis Ayala. He additionally lost to Manuel Santana in the grueling singles finals of 1961 and 1964 and claimed the mixed doubles trophy at the 1958 event with Shirley Bloomer.
Fans in Rome were also amazed by his 1957 and 1961 titles, two of the 52 silverware of his career, but it was in the Davis Cup that Pietrangeli took his game to the next level. In a record 164 rubbers between 1954 and 1972, the Italian won 120 matches, losing to Australia in the 1960 and 1961 Challenge Rounds (both held on grass courts). When he retired, as captain he led Corrado Barazzutti, Paolo Bertolucci, Adriano Panatta and Tonino Zugarelli to Italy’s first Davis Cup title in 1976 with a 4-1 final victory over Chile in Santiago.
Pietrangeli was born in Tunis and during the Allied occupation of Tunisia (1942-43) his father, Giulio, an amateur tennis player, was interned. Nicola started playing tennis in the prison camp, before the family moved to Rome. He later became part of the youth team of Lazio football club.
It wasn’t until Pietrangeli was 19 that he fully committed to tennis. He took part for the first time in the 1952 Italian Championships [now known as the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, an ATP Masters 1000 event] and at The Championships, Wimbledon, 19 times, reaching the 1960 semi-finals (left of Rod Laver) – one of the two years the right-hander was ranked third in the world.
He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1986 and twenty years later the second largest tennis stadium in the Foro Italico was named in his honor. It is in the 3,000-seat Pietrangeli Stadium, he wrote in his autobiography Se piove rimandiamo (When it rains, we postpone), that he would like his funeral to take place.
Pietrangeli had three sons: Marco, Giorgio [who died aged 59 on 4 July 2025] and Filippo – in a 15-year marriage to Susanna Artero, and he also had a long-term relationship with Italian TV presenter Licia Colo. Pietrangeli was in declining health after suffering a hip fracture in December 2024.
Nicola ‘Nicky’ Chirinsky Pietrangeli, tennis player and captain, born September 11, 1933, died December 1, 2025
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
#memory #Nicola #Pietrangeli #Italian #tennis #icon