Nicola Pietrangeli, Adriano Panatta’s grief: "He didn’t want to get up"
Adriano Panatta movedly recalled Nicola Pietrangeli speaking live on Storie Italiane on Rai 1. Despite the controversies over the years, the former Italian tennis player has always had great affection for his former captain in the Davis Cup: “Nicola was my friend, although we used to catch each other occasionally, but it was a game we played. I want to remember him cheerfully, he was an extraordinary character, beyond being an absolute champion who won practically everything there was to win during the time he played” explained Panatta, who won the 1976 Davis Cup with the Italian national team led by Pietrangeli.
“At my birth he was a 17-year-old playing at Parioli tennis and was already a promise, then he and I kind of changed the guard. We also played together, we had fun, we vacationed together. Nicola and I were very close friends” continued Panatta, who then recalled the pain of the last few months over the passing of Pietrangeli’s son Giorgio. “The thing that hurt me most in this last period was that I did not want him to suffer: he had a tremendous blow when Giorgino died. The’last time I called him, a few days ago, I told him ‘get out of bed, damn you'”.
“He told me that he didn…t want to get up; however, he made a beautiful life”. L’Ansa reports that Pietrangeli’s family, following Nicola’s wishes, chose the stadium dedicated to him inside the Foro Italico facility for the final farewell to the Italian tennis legend. The funeral chamber will thus be arranged on Wednesday, Dec. 3, starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 12 p.m., when a memorial service is then also scheduled. The funeral on the same day at 3 p.m. in the Church of Santa Maria della Gran Madre di Dio at Ponte Milvio in Rome. Among the many to pay tribute to Pietrangeli will be a legend of the caliber of Rafael Nadal.
“I just learned of the sad news of the passing of a great of Italian and world tennis – Nadal wrote -. My deepest condolences to his entire family, his son Filippo and the entire Italian tennis family. Rest in peace, Nicola”.
