Nicola Chirinsky Pietrangeli (Italian pronunciation:[niˈkɔːlapjeˈtrandʒeli]; born Chirinsky; 11 September 1933 – 1 December 2025) was an Italian tennis player. He won two singles titles at the French Championships and is considered by many to be one of Italy's greatest tennis champions.[3][4]
Nicola Chirinsky was born 11 September 1933 in Tunis, then a French colony, to Giulio Pietrangeli, also born in Tunis but of Italian parents from Abruzzo and Naples, Campania, and Anna Chirinskaya (néevon Yourgens), a Russian noble mother whose Danish[citation needed] colonel father had fled the October Revolution.[4][5][6] At the time of his birth, his mother was married to a Russian count,[5][6][7] and only acquired the surname Pietrangeli upon her marriage to his father, who was interned as a political prisoner during the Allied invasion of Tunisia in World War II. He started playing tennis during that period, until his father was expelled in 1946 and the family settled in Rome, Italy. There, Pietrangeli, a native French and Russian speaker, learned Italian.[4][5][6][7]
Career
Pietrangeli made his international debut at the 1952 Italian Open, losing in four sets to Jacques Peten.[8] He appeared in four men's singles finals at Roland Garros – winning the title in 1959 and 1960, and finishing runner-up in 1961 and 1964. He also won the Roland Garros men's doubles title in 1959 (together with Orlando Sirola), and the mixed doubles in 1958. At Wimbledon, Pietrangeli was a single semifinalist in 1960, when he lost to Rod Laver in 5 sets. He won the Italian Open in 1957 and 1961 and was ranked World No. 3 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph in 1959 and 1960 and also by Ned Potter in 1961.[2][9]
Pietrangeli in 1964
Pietrangeli represented Italy in the Davis Cup between 1954 and 1972. He played in a record 164 Davis Cup rubbers, winning a record 120. He was a player on the Italian teams which reached the Davis Cup final in 1960 and 1961. Both finals were played on grass tennis courts in Australia, and the Italians were not able to overcome the strong Australian team which included Laver, Roy Emerson, and Neale Fraser.[10]
After retiring as a player, Pietrangeli became Italy's Davis Cup team captain and guided them to winning their first-ever Davis Cup in 1976.[11]
Pietrangeli was an Eastern Orthodox Christian like his Russian mother.[5][14] He had three children with his first wife, Susanna, who later left him for another man.[5] He had a long relationship with the Italian journalist and TV presenter Licia Colò, 28 years younger than he was.[15]
Pietrangeli died in Rome on 1 December 2025, at the age of 92,[7] as announced by the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation.[16] He had experienced declining health after sustaining a hip fracture in December 2024.[17]
↑Baccini, Giancarlo; Bottazzi, Luca; Carotenuto, Angelo; Castaldo, Dario; Marianantoni, Luca; Martucci, Vincenzo; Mastroluca, Alessandro; Perrone, Roberto; Valesio, Piero (2020). Gladiatori della terra rossa: Roma e il grande tennis: storia degli internazionali d'Italia (in Italian). Preface by Nicola Pietrangeli. Florence–Milan: Giunti. p.10. ISBN978-88-09-90708-9. Retrieved 9 November 2021. Fui sorteggiato con un belga, Jacques Peten. Aveva 40 anni ed ero sicuro di vincere. Persi in 4 set, una batosta che non ho mai dimenticato.
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