Nicola Pietrangeli he was one of the greatest players in the history of Italian tennis. The former world number three has won the Roland Garros: the first in 1959 against Ian Vermaak, the second in 1960 against Luis Ayala.
The Italian men’s movement, after some difficult years, is experiencing a magnificent moment. Suffice it to say that there are eight blues in the top 100 and eight in the top 200. But what bodes well is the age of players like Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner e Lorenzo Musetti: three of the tennis players who could give a lot of satisfaction to all tennis fans in Italy.
Pietrangeli’s words on Sinner and the growth of Italian men’s tennis
In an interview with Adnkronos, Pietrangeli spoke about the growth of Italian players and in particular about the challenge between Sinner and Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros.
“Next year, in my opinion, the match we saw yesterday at Roland Garros between Sinner and Nadal will have the opposite result. Jannik will be the one to beat Rafael. Still in my opinion, he is among the top ten players in the world, ”said Pietrangeli.
“From the fourth on, because Djokovic, Nadal and Federer are in another category, he plays with everyone. He has a perfect behavior, it is clear that he will have a little to learn, above all to win and to be ready for important challenges, because after the first exploits you have to get used to it.
We have a good team, if for ten years it was women who drove Italian tennis, now we have a respectable men’s team, and then they are young. It must be remembered, however, that we Italians are too much fans and not sportsmen, so Trevisan’s achievement is also to be applauded: she finished in the top eight in Paris.
I, for example, have won twice in Paris, but I have reached the final two more times, only nobody remembers it, nobody says it. Berrettini is the eighth player in the ranking, it is very nice for the federation to have someone like him.
Fognini? Fognini is Fognini, take it or leave it. He has great talent, but he hasn’t been able to make the most of it. He could have done a lot more. They say: when you want to play, there is none for anyone, but you must always play, not just when you feel like it ”.
