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 who remains the Davis Cup all-time leader in wins, has died. He was 92.

The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation announced Pietrangeli's death on Monday, without providing a cause.

Rafael Nadal, who often received the Italian Open trophy from Pietrangeli as he won the Rome tournament a record 10 times, posted in Italian on X: “I just heard the sad news about the passing of an Italian and world tennis great. My sincerest condolences to his family, his son Filippo and the entire Italian tennis family. RIP Nicola.”

Nicola Chirinsky Pietrangeli was born in Tunis, which was a French colony at the time, to an Italian father and a Russian mother.

He is the only Italian player in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which said Pietrangeli “had classic strokes, a conventional game plan, and an economy of effort that made him a supreme clay court player.”

Pietrangeli was the first Italian to win a Grand Slam singles trophy, at the French Championships in 1959 and repeated in 1960. He defeated Ian Vermaak of South Africa 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in the ‘59 final, and Luis Ayala of Chile 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the ’60 final. The two singles majors weren't surpassed by an Italian until this year when Sinner won his third and fourth titles.

“I won $150 for the 1960 title, which covered two months rent for my home in Rome,” Pietrangeli told the Gazzetta dello Sport in 2020.

Pietrangeli was also runner-up at Roland Garros in 1961 and 1964, losing both finals to Spanish great Manuel Santana.

“In 1964 Santana and I made a bet whereby the loser would pay for dinner,” Pietrangeli said. “I honored the agreement and 10 of us went out that night, including our wives, and Manolo invited (Spanish soccer player) Luisito Suárez. I spent my entire earnings from the tournament to cover the evening.”

Pietrangeli also won the 1959 French Championships doubles with countryman Orlando Sirola, and the 1958 French mixed title with Australian Shirley Bloomer. He rarely travelled to Australia and the United States, but was a regular at Wimbledon where he showed his all-court expertise by taking Rod Laver to five sets in the 1960 semifinals.

“Nicola Pietrangeli was not only the first to teach us what it really meant to win, on and off the court," Italian federation president Angelo Binaghi said. "He was the starting point for everything that our tennis (movement) has become.”

In Davis Cup, Pietrangeli holds the record for total wins and singles wins from 66 ties from 1954-72. His singles record was 78-32 and his doubles record was 42-12. He also formed half of the most successful Davis Cup doubles partnership with Sirola. They won 34 of their 42 matches.

Pietrangeli never won the Davis Cup as a player, losing both of his final appearances in Australia against Laver and Roy Emerson. But he won the Davis Cup as the captain in 1976 with a win over Chile in Santiago, played amid the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Italy was urged not to travel to Chile but Pietrangeli pushed for the Azzurri to go.

“That was really my biggest contribution for that final,” he said. “Without me, Italy would have not travelled to that final and we wouldn’t have won.”

Italy, led by Sinner, didn't win the Davis Cup again until 2023.

“Nicola Pietrangeli was the true embodiment of everything Davis Cup represents — passion, prestige and pride in representing your nation,” International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty said. “As well as reaching the top of the game as an individual, Nicola truly understood what it meant to play tennis for something bigger than himself, and his incredible achievements are carved into the 125-year history of the Davis Cup."

Pietrangeli won 53 titles in the amateur era, then became a sort of ‘godfather’ for Italian tennis. He was a fixture in the front row at the Foro Italico for the Italian Open, a tournament he won in 1957 and 1961, beating Laver in the latter final.

In 2006, the statue-lined Pallacorda court at the Foro Italico — considered one of the most picturesque stadiums on the circuit — was renamed Stadio Pietrangeli.

Pietrangeli said he wanted his funeral to be held on the court named after him, and a public viewing of his body will be held there on Wednesday, followed by a brief memorial service, the Italian federation announced. The funeral is to be held in a different location.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Former Italian tennis legend and Davis Cup winner Nicola Pietrangeli sits during the tennis Davis Cup final 8 match between Brazil's Joao Fonseca and Netherland's Botic Van De Zandschulp at the Unipol arena, in Bologna, northern Italy, Thursday, September 12, 2024. (Michele Nucci/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli returns the ball to United States' Earl Buchholz in the men's singles tennis championship at Wimbledon, London, June 22, 1959. (AP Photo/Leslie Priest, File)

FILE - Spain's Rafael Nadal, left, holds the trophy he was given by Italian tennis legend Nicola Pietrangeli, after winning the Rome Masters tennis tournament at Rome's Foro Italico, Sunday, May 13, 2007. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, file)

FILE - Italy's Nicola Pietrangeli in action during his Davis Cup singles tennis match against United States' Jon Douglas, in Rome, Oct. 16, 1961. (AP Photo/Mario Torrisi, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hanging near their records Wednesday as oil prices fall and ease the pressure on households and businesses worldwide.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% below its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 183 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:56 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Stocks of companies with big fuel bills helped lead the way on hopes that lower oil prices will remove a big drag on their profits. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings climbed 5.7%, and United Airlines rallied 7.3%. Delta Air Lines rose 3.7% and is on track to set an all-time high.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil fell 4.1% to $95.48 after the ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to hold despite the U.S. military launching what it called “self-defense” strikes in southern Iran. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell even more, 4.2%, to $89.69 on hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf for deliveries again.

Stocks have been able to run to records despite the painful inflation and uncertainty caused by high oil prices largely because companies have reported surprisingly strong profits for the start of 2026, and the forecast is for them to continue.

Bath & Body Works rallied 11.2%, and Abercrombie & Fitch climbed 11.8% after both reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That's even as U.S. consumers continue to say they're feeling discouraged about the economy and inflation.

Lululemon Athletica rose 3.6% after reaching a deal with its founder, Chip Wilson, where it will add a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and a former co-CEO of On to its board of directors.

On the losing side of Wall Street was Dick's Sporting Goods, which dropped 4.9% despite delivering a profit for the latest quarter that edged past expectations. Analysts pointed to how much profit it wrung out of each $1 in revenue, which some called a bit weak.

Oil-and-gas stocks also sank, hurt by the dropping prices for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.4%, and Chevron slipped 0.8%. Halliburton dropped 3% to bring its gain for the year so far back toward 40%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after falling oil prices took pressure off inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.48% from 4.50% late Tuesday and from 4.67% roughly a week ago.

It’s a respite following recent gains for yields in bond markets worldwide, which threatened to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. High yields have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea's Kospi was one of the world's best performers and jumped 2.3% after SK Hynix, which is a big beneficiary of the artificial-intelligence boom, soared 9.3%.

A day before, Micron Technology surged to become the latest Big Tech company to be worth more than $1 trillion on AI excitement. Its stock has more than tripled already in 2026, and analysts at UBS said Tuesday it could soar even more because of how fundamentally AI has improved demand for computer memory.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

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A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer walks past near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)