Filippo, who works for the Internazionali organization, speaks: “Lunch in Paris with Manolo Santana, jokes with Panatta, Aunt Lea’s affection. Sinner’s silence? I’d rather not answer that.”

“Talking 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 times of mourning, opening the book of memories can distract attention from the sense of loss and allow, albeit fleetingly, a journey through time.

Filippo, what was Nicola Pietrangeli like as a father?

“It may seem strange, but he was a father like any other. He loved us, raised us, and never let us want for anything. Of course, he was an overbearing father, in the best sense of the word. 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 the Davis Cup team, he was always away. Then he settled in Rome and we began to share his passions.“

Tennis?

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

The classic rebellion against your parents’ wishes?

”Not at all, he always let us choose freely. He never pushed us to play tennis, partly because the family name was a heavy burden…”

What passions did you share, then?

“I played with him on the Canottieri Roma soccer team. I was a fullback, he was a midfielder, even though he was born a center forward. We competed in the Caravella, the historic tournament between clubs, and, given our friendship with Prince Albert, we also organized matches against the Principality of Monaco team.”

Any squabbles on the field?

“No, no, but once we organized an episode of Scherzi a parte. My brother Marco and I pretended to touch each other and fell to the ground, the referee blew 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 Internazionali, I wasn’t even born yet (Filippo was born in 1963, ed.). I saw the final of the Italian championships with Adriano Panatta on television.”

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

“Adriano was a frequent visitor to our house. His relationship with my father was immediately marked by constant banter, from the first day they met. And it remained that way until the end. They both enjoyed friendly bickering: it was a game.”

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

“I was a teenager: it was quite a tense period in our family, we also felt that the atmosphere was not at all relaxed. My brothers and I always noticed a police or Carabinieri patrol car parked outside our house, 24 hours a day. A few years later, my father spoke about the threats he had received during those weeks.“

Which matches do you remember most fondly?

”We children lived and breathed tennis: we were extras in that world. Once I attended a lunch in Paris with my father and Manolo Santana, the player who deprived him of his third consecutive title at Roland Garros but who later became a dear friend of his. I met another great rival, Rod Laver, in Rome, when my father presented him with the Racchetta d’Oro award. And then McEnroe, Federer, Djokovic, Nadal…”.

And Lea Pericoli?

“She was like an aunt: Aunt Lea. She loved us all very much, and she had a special relationship with my father. When she died, I cried a lot.”

You ended up making tennis your profession.

“I joined the Internazionali organization in 1999. I remember a wonderful trip with my dad and my son to San Diego to watch the 2010 Fed Cup final. In recent years, we were very close: because of his health problems, I accompanied him on his trips. I had the privilege of being by his side because of my job, and for that I am grateful to the FITP.”

You were also in Malaga.

“Yes, in 2023 we won the Davis Cup 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 passed away prematurely.

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

These days, the tennis world is paying public tribute to an icon of the sport. No social media posts from Jannik Sinner, the idol of our times. Disappointed?

”I’d rather not answer that.”