ROMA (ITALPRESS) – The music, the 1976 Davis Cup and the field titled: the farewell to Nicola Pietrangeli was held in full respect of the will of the legend of Italian and world tennis. The notes of Charles Aznavour filled the Italic Forum opening the burning room, then closed by “My way”, the famous song by Frank Sinatra. And there was also the sun on the sky of Rome, because “if it rains, we remain”, as the title of his biography says.
From the world of sport to that of politics, but also many fans and common people: everyone wanted to homage Pietrangeli. “What I have seen in these days I did not expect, was an explosion of affection”, is the comment of his son Philip, present together with his brother Marco, who wanted to remember his father as a man “who enjoyed his whole life and who loved everyone”. I also commemorate Fitp with President Angelo Binaghi, who during the commemoration stressed that “it is reductive to say that he gave so much to Italian tennis: Nicola is Italian tennis. He gave us courage, explained that we could win. He always believed us much more than us, he waited for the two most extraordinary months of Italian tennis. Today, in Italy, in tennis, we are all children of Nicola”.
As mentioned, many personalities who paid tribute to the feretro, including Adriano Panatta and Antonio Zugarelli, who were on the field in Davis won with Pietrangeli captain. And then the president of the Coni, Luciano Buonfiglio (“historie as his never die”), and the former numbers one of the Italian sport Giovanni Malagò (“he was flunk and ironic, but above all a family friend”), Giovanni Petrucci (“I am pleased to have been the one who titled this field to him. His class and style were under everyone’s eyes”) and Franco Carraro (“today it would have been even stronger”). “It was an icon, he taught us to love Davis and the value of dressing the blue shirt,” is instead the memory of Davis’ captain, Filippo Volandri, while the captain of the Billie Jean King Cup, Tathiana Garbin, added that “he gave us so many funny tips, we remember him with so much love.” Among the various sportsmen, there were also the director of the International of Italy, Paolo Lorenzi, and the former striker of Lazio, team of the heart of Pietrangeli, Bruno Giordano. Also present is the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, who described today as “a day of sweet sadness, which is a bit the essence of what was Nicola and what he represented”.
After the commemoration, the funeral was held in private form at the church Santa Maria della Gran Madre di Dio in Ponte Milvio, with the presence of other personalities such as Fabio Fognini, Gianni Rivera and Prince Albert of Monaco, who before entering the church remembered: “It was a splendid man, he was always present in the most important moments of my life.”.
– Photo mec/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
