Nicola Pietrangeli, former Italian tennis player winner of two Roland Garros titles in 1959 and 1960, has died aged 92. He also reached Wimbledon semi-finals, and became the first Italian champion of a Grand Slam.
The Italian tennis federation did not announced the cause of death, but it was known that he's had serious health problems since a hip fracture in December 2024. However, he was still actively following tennis... and commenting on Jannik Sinner, not always positively.
"It's a huge slap in the face for Italian sport. I don't understand when he talks about difficult choices. He has to play tennis, not wage war", Pietrangeli said only one month ago, when Sinner announced he would miss Davis Cup final 8 (Italy eventually won, defeating Spain).
Pietrangeli praised Sinner, but didn't always enjoy his tennis
He later added that he knows he's from another era: Pietrangeli won his individual titles before the professionalisation of the sport in 1968, and back then the greatest goal was Davis Cup, where Pietrangeli holds a record that will probably be forever unmatched: 164 Davis Cup matches played, 120 victories (the second in the list is Roger Federer, who played 70 matches and won 52).
However, Pietrangeli did not win any of the two Davis Cup finals he reached in 1960 and 1961, and only won a Davis Cup as a manager in 1976, the first ever for the country.
As recorded by The Tennis Gazette, Pietrangeli once described Sinner's style as "boring" during a win against Zverev at the Australian Open final. In a later interview, Pietrangeli said that media had been painting a false narrative that Pietrangeli was "jealous" of Sinner. In reality, in one of his last interviews with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Pietrangeli praised Sinner, saying that "he has no weak points", compared him to Rafa Nadal in clay, and said that the only one capable of stopping him is Alcaraz. "When he plays like that he's unbeatable, he can only lose if he's sick or has slept badly."