{"id":2413,"date":"2026-06-04T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2413"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:37:00","slug":"adriano-panatta-has-been-waiting-50-years-for-an-italian-man-to-match-him-with-a-french-open-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2413","title":{"rendered":"Adriano Panatta has been waiting 50 years for an Italian man to match him with a French Open title"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Adriano Panatta was expecting to award the French Open trophy to Jannik Sinner 50 years after his triumph in Paris.<\/p>\n

Read more No handshake and no photo as Andreeva of Russia beats Kostyuk of Ukraine to reach French Open final<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out he might still hand over the Coupe des Mousquetaires to a fellow Italian after the men\u2019s singles final on Sunday after being invited by Roland Garros to take care of the honors on the anniversary of his 1976 triumph.<\/p>\n

Despite Sinner\u2019s stunning loss in the second round, Italy is assured to have a player in the championship match since Flavio Cobolli will face compatriot Matteo Arnaldi in the semifinals on Friday.<\/p>\n

Cobolli comes from the same tennis club in Rome as Panatta did. Panatta\u2019s father was the caretaker at the Tennis Club Parioli.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, Cobolli and his father and coach, Stefano, paid Panatta a visit at the club in Treviso, northern Italy, that Panatta created after his playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them he was going to be a great player,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cOf course, I didn\u2019t realize it would be so soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Sinner came close last year when he had three match points in a five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the final, no Italian man has raised the singles trophy in Paris since Panatta.<\/p>\n

Panatta recently looked back on the 1976 tournament in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Beating Borg<\/h3>\n

Panatta was the only man to beat Bjorn Borg twice at the French Open, in the fourth round in 1973 and in the quarterfinals in 1976. The only other time they met in Paris was in 1975 when Borg won in the semifinals and went on to claim the second of his six Roland Garros titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked playing these clay-court specialists like Borg and (Guillermo) Vilas,\u201d said Panatta, who beat Vilas in the Italian Open final just before winning the French Open. \u201cI had a very varied game and attacked a lot and hit a lot of drop shots. I didn\u2019t play like them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf two players play the same way, the stronger player always wins. I played with a different style and that probably bothered them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sneaker emergency<\/h3>\n

Panatta beat two more clay-court specialists, Americans Eddie Dibbs and Harold Solomon, in the semifinals and final, respectively.<\/p>\n

The final was a rematch of a controversial quarterfinal in Rome between Panatta and Solomon in which Solomon walked away while serving for the match after getting infuriated over a perceived missed call.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the one who made it an incident,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cWhen you walk away, you\u2019re responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Needless to say, both players were motivated for the rematch in the Paris final.<\/p>\n

But Panatta had a problem when he realized that his doubles partner, Paolo Bertolucci, had mistakenly taken his tennis sneakers home with him.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Bertolucci) had to fly back from Rome the morning of the final with my sneakers,\u201d Panatta said.<\/p>\n

Read more Serena Williams\u2019 tennis comeback to begin with 19-year-old doubles partner Victoria Mboko<\/a><\/p>\n

Fortunately, the sneakers arrived in time and Panatta again beat Solomon \u2014 this time by winning a fourth-set tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

$30,000 winner\u2019s check<\/h3>\n

Panatta said he received $30,000 for his French Open title \u2014 about what players who lose in the first round of qualifying earn now.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s having a hard time wrapping his head around the current players\u2019 protesting for a bigger share of tournament revenues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really know the reasons behind it,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cBut it makes me laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panatta recalls how players boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 after Croatian player Nikola Pili\u0107 was suspended.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t do it for money,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cWe did it because of Pili\u0107.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner\u2019s perfection<\/h3>\n

While Panatta pines for the old days when there were more players like him who employed serve-and-volley tactics, he still appreciates players like Sinner who push the limits of baseline tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s excellence, it\u2019s never boring,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cWhen someone performs near the limit of perfection, it\u2019s inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinner\u2019s sense of humor<\/h3>\n

Panatta was also invited to participate in the trophy ceremony in Rome last month when Sinner became the first Italian man to win that title since Panatta in 1976.<\/p>\n

During the ceremony, Sinner jokingly told the 75-year-old Panatta that obviously he\u2019s too young to have seen him play and that \u201cmy parents probably hadn\u2019t even gotten together yet\u201d back then.<\/p>\n

Panatta was amused by Sinner\u2019s comment and said it showed that Sinner \u201chas got a sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Panatta, who drove rally cars and speed boats after he retired from tennis, Sinner has a taste for speed and likes to race go-karts and watch Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he races when he stops playing, too,\u201d Panatta said.<\/p>\n

Davis Cup<\/h3>\n

Panatta crowned his extraordinary 1976 season by leading Italy to the Davis Cup title with a win over Chile in Santiago that was played amid the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was when the Davis Cup was the real Davis Cup,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cIt was worth just as much as a Grand Slam.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how does he distinguish his Italian Open, French Open and Davis Cup titles?<\/p>\n

\u201cRome was the most sentimental because the Foro Italico was where I started to play tennis. Roland Garros was the most important one because it was a Grand Slam. And the Davis Cup was a team event and we had a team of players who knew each other since they were little kids,\u201d Panatta said. \u201cThey were three entirely different emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Little relief for Triangle as extreme drought persists across central NC<\/a><\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Adriano Panatta was expecting to award the French Open trophy to Jannik…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAdriano Panatta has been waiting 50 years for an Italian man to match him with a French Open title - Raleigh Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2413\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adriano Panatta has been waiting 50 years for an Italian man to match him with a French Open title - 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