- Adriano Panatta
Adriano Panatta (born
July 9 1950 ) is a former professionaltennis player from Italy. He is best remembered for winning theFrench Open in 1976. He is widely considered to be one of Italy's greatest ever tennis players, and some fans consider him to be among the bestclay court players in tennis history.Infobox Tennis playerplayername= Adriano Panatta
country = ITA
residence=Rome ,Italy
datebirth= birth date and age|1950|7|9
placebirth=Rome ,Italy
turnedpro= 1969, international debut in 1970
retired= 1983
plays= Right-handed
highestsinglesranking= No. 4 (1976)
AustralianOpenresult= 1R (1969)
FrenchOpenresult= W (1976)
Wimbledonresult= QF (1979)
USOpenresult=4R (1978)
singlesrecord= 364–223
singlestitles= 9
doublesrecord= 233–152
doublestitles= 17
highestdoublesranking= No. 93 (1983)
careerprizemoney= US$ 776,187Career
Panatta was born in
Rome . His father was the caretaker of the "Tennis Club Parioli" (a prestigious tennis club in the city), and as a youngster he learned to play the game on the club's clay courts. He became a successful European junior player before turning professional.In his early career, Panatta won top-level professional titles at
Bournemouth in 1973,Florence in 1974, and atKitzbühel andStockholm in 1975.1976 was the pinnacle of Panatta's career. He won the French Open that year after having saved a match point in the first round against the
Czechoslovakia nPavel Hutka . In the final, he defeatedHarold Solomon 6–1, 6–4, 4–6, 7–6. He also won that year's Italian Open (having saved 11 match points in his first round tie against theAustralia nKim Warwick ). He finished off 1976 by helping Italy capture its first-everDavis Cup title, winning two singles and a doubles rubber in the final againstChile . He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 4 that year.Panatta is the only player to have defeated
Björn Borg at theFrench Open . He achieved this feat twice – in the fourth round in 1973 (7–6, 2–6, 7–5, 7–6), and in quarter-finals in 1976 (6–3, 6–3, 2–6, 7–6).In 1977, Panatta won the WCT tournament in
Houston , where he managed to defeatJimmy Connors andVitas Gerulaitis . He followed this up with another title inTokyo in 1978.Despite his power and perfect technique, Panatta was never at his best on fast surfaces. On
grass court s, his only notable performance came in reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1979. He was beaten at that stage byPat Dupre in 5 sets (3–6, 6–4, 6–7, 6–4, 6–3).After the 1976 Davis Cup triumph, Panatta helped Italy reach the Davis Cup final on three further occasions – in 1977, 1979 and 1980. The team lost to
Australia in 1977, theUnited States in 1979, and toCzechoslovakia in 1980. Overall, Panatta compiled a 64-36 Davis Cup record (55-17 on clay).Panatta's final career singles title came in 1980 at
Florence . He retired from the professional tour in 1983.Since retiring as a player, Panatta has gone on to serve as Captain of Italy's Davis Cup team and as Tournament Director of the
Rome Masters . He is also a professional powerboat racer.Grand Slam singles finals
Wins (1)
ingles titles (9)
External links
* [http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/playerprofiles/?playernumber=P059 Official ATP profile]
* [http://www.daviscup.com/teams/player.asp?player=10002304 Davis Cup record]
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