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.

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.

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