Italian tennis mourns the passing of its icon. Nicola Pietrangeli, the only Italian player included in the world tennis Hall of Fame, has died at the age of 92. He is still the all-time Davis Cup world record holder for matches played (164), matches won in singles (78-32) and doubles (42-12). He formed with Orlando Sirola the most successful duo ever in the event (34 successes in 42 matches) but he only won it as captain, in 1976. His greatest merit, he has always declared, was having brought Italy to Chile, having won the match on a diplomatic and political level against those who pushed for the boycott as a form of protest against the regime of General Augusto Pinochet. Champion of the “Dolce Vita” made his brand and identity by Federico Fellini, Pietrangeli was considered among the ten best tennis players in the world between 1957 and 1964, when the rankings were drawn up by journalists.
He triumphed twice at Roland Garros, in 1959 and 1960, years in which he was listed as world number 3. He won twice at the Italian Internationals and won a total of 48 titles, to which must be added the gold medal at the IV Mediterranean Games in Naples in 1963 (beating the Spaniard Manuel Santana) and the bronze medal in doubles together with Sirola. He also won the bronze medal in the men’s singles at the exhibition tennis tournament at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968. “If I had trained more,” he said, “I would have won more but I would have had less fun.”