Nicola Pietrangeli, the funeral chamber at the Foro Italico.

With a one-day delay due to yesterday’s rain, Nicola Pietrangeli’s funeral chamber was opened this morning, and the venue for the final farewell to the Italian tennis icon is the clay court at the Foro Italico that bears his name. In short, just like the title of his autobiography, “If It Rains We Postpone,” the final tribute to the champion and Davis Cup captain has been postponed. The casket arrived shortly before 9 a.m. Waiting for him was the silver salad bowl he won as captain in 1976, blue-white flowers, a giant screen installed with images of him and the notes of Charles Aznavour. The funeral will follow.

Martino Davidi

“It’s all the way he wanted it – says his son Marco– The place and the music is that” moved. Then he continues: “Yes he was moved by the’last Davis won, for him wearing the blue jersey was important”. On Sinner’s private condolences, he says he “didn’t look”. Also among the first to bid Pietrangeli a final farewell was CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio. “History goes away and stories like his never die– the words of the No. 1 of Italian sports -He left us a message that we should all realize”. Pietrangeli, the’man who popularized tennis in Italy even before Adriano Panatta, died Monday at’the age of 92.

Born in Tunis, then a French protectorate, on Sept. 11, 1933, he moved to Italy, to Rome, after World War II. He was the first Italian to win a Grand Slam tournament, Roland Garros, twice, in 1959 and 1960, also losing two finals, in 1961 and 1964. He also won two editions of the Internazionali d’Italia, in 1957 in Rome and 1961 in Turin, and three of the Monte Carlo tournament in 1961, 1967 and 1968. In total he won 48 tournaments in the period from 1955 to 1970. He was also a great doubles player: he won 11 tournaments paired with Orlando Sirola, including Roland Garros in 1959 and Rome in 1960.

In the Davis Cup, in addition to winning it as a non-player captain, as a player he made it to the Challenge Round, the very final at the time, losing it both times to the then very strong Australia. He holds the all-time, and probably unbeatable, record for matches played in Davis: 164, 110 in singles and 54 in doubles. In 1986 he was the first Italian to enter the Tennis Hall of Fame.