Italian tennis icon Nicola Pietrangeli dies at the age of 92

Two-time French Open winner Nicola Pietrangeli has died at the age of 92, the Italian Tennis Federation announced on Monday (December 1, 2025).

“Italian tennis mourns an icon. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian to be inducted into the World Tennis Hall of Fame, has died,” the FITP said.

Born in Tunis in 1933 to an Italian father and Russian mother, Pietrangeli was widely regarded as the country’s greatest ever tennis player until the rise of current world number two Jannik Sinner.

He was also one of the best clay players of his generation, with three titles in Monte Carlo and his home tournament at the Italian Open in Rome, where a court is named after him.

In total, Pietrangeli won 44 singles titles during his career, including his two victories at Roland Garros in 1959 and 1960, and reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in the same year as his second French Open title.

An all-round sportsman, Pietrangeli played for the Lazio football team until he was 18, but he switched to tennis after the Rome club tried to send him out on loan.

Pietrangeli’s first victory at Roland Garros marked the first time an Italian player had won a Grand Slam and came after he defeated South African Ian Vermaak in the final.

He also won the doubles tournament that year, which was extremely popular at the time, together with his compatriot Orlando Sirola with whom he formed a formidable duo.

Gifted with an excellent backhand, precise ball control and impressive stamina, he won his second French Open title in 1960 against Chilean Luis Ayala before being beaten twice by Spaniard Manuel Santana in the 1961 and 1964 finals.

For most of his career, tennis was divided between amateurs, who played in the traditional top tournaments and the Davis Cup, and professionals who entered a parallel circuit once they had built a reputation as top players.

Unlike his contemporaries Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall, Pietrangeli did not turn professional until the start of the Open era in 1968, when he was in his mid-30s.

After retiring, Pietrangeli, a fan of the good life, became a media personality, presenting the popular sports program La Domenica Sportiva and appearing in three films.

“If I had trained harder, I would have won more, but I would have had less fun,” he once said.

Pietrangeli was also a stalwart Davis Cup player and played a record 164 matches for Italy, although he never managed to win them as a player, losing the finals in 1960 and 1961.

He made those appearances between 1954 and 1972, but he only tasted success at the international tournament in 1976, when he led his country to its first title.