Nicola Pietrangeli interview with his son: “Panatta, Laver, Davis: I’ll tell you about my father”

“Telling about my father is difficult, but at the same time easy.” This is how Filippo Pietrangeli begins, in a painful yet liberating phone call. In the hours of mourning, opening the book of memories can divert attention from the sense of loss and allow, albeit fleetingly, a journey through time.

Filippo, what was Nicola Pietrangeli like as a dad?

“It might seem strange, but he was a father like any other. He loved us, he raised us, he never let us lack anything. Of course, he was a cumbersome father, in the good sense of the term. He made us live in a world totally different from that of any other child. When he traveled the world, first as a player and then as captain of Davis, he was always away. Then he settled in Rome and we began to share his passions.”

“In reality, we children all played different sports. I rode horses, Marco played American football, Giorgio surfed.”

The classic rebellion against the will of the parents?

“No, he always left us free to choose. He never pushed us to play tennis, also because the surname was heavy…”.

What passions did you share, then?

“I played with him in the Canottieri Roma football team. I was a full-back, he was in midfield, even though he was born a centre-forward. We played the Caravella, the historic club tournament, and, given our friendship with Prince Albert, we also organized matches against the team from the Principality of Monaco.”

Any squabbles on the pitch?

“No no, but once we organized an episode of Jokes aside. My brother Marco and I pretended to touch each other and fell to the ground, the referee whistled non-existent fouls, and dad got angry.”

What memories do you have of Nicola Pietrangeli as a player?

“When he won Roland Garros and the Internationals, I wasn’t born yet (Filippo was born in 1963, ed). I saw the final of the Italian championships on television with Adriano Panatta.”

Bologna, 27 September 1970: that was a sort of passing of the baton.

“Adriano was very present in our house. The relationship with my father was immediately based on continuous gags, from the first day they met. And it was like that until the end. We both liked arguing amicably: it was a game.”

How did you experience the 1976 Davis Cup final? The protests in Italy, the political pressure not to play in Chile during Pinochet’s dictatorship and his father’s determination to take the team there anyway?

“I was a teenager: it was a fairly intense period in the family, we too felt that the atmosphere was not at all relaxed. With my brothers we always noticed a police car or carabinieri parked under the house, 24 hours a day. A few years later, my father spoke of threats received in those weeks”.

Which encounters do you remember most fondly?

“We children ate bread and tennis: we were extras within that world. Once I attended a lunch in Paris with my father and Manolo Santana, that is the player who deprived him of the third consecutive title at Roland Garros but who later became a dear friend of his. Another great rival, Rod Laver, I met in Rome, when dad gave him the Golden Racket. And then McEnroe, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal…”.

“She was like an aunt: Aunt Lea. We needed a lot of good, the relationship with my father was special. When he died, I cried a lot.”

She ended up making tennis her profession.

“I joined the organization of the Internationals in 1999. I remember a wonderful trip with my father and my son to San Diego, to attend the 2010 Fed Cup final. In recent years we have been very close: due to his ailments I accompanied him on away games. I had the privilege of being close to him for the work I do, and for this I thank Fitp”.

You were also there in Malaga.

“Yes, in 2023 we won Davis again after 47 years and he was overjoyed to be able to lift the cup together with the boys. He was proud of them.”

A few months ago Giorgio’s premature death.

“A tragedy. In a year and a half, I lost my mother, my brother and my father.”

These days the world of tennis is paying all the public honors to an icon of this sport. No social media posts from Jannik Sinnerthe idol of our times. Sorry?

“I’d rather not answer.”