Biography of Adriano Panatta

Adriano Panatta (born July 9, 1950, in Rome, Italy) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. He is best remembered for winning the French Open in 1976. Panatta’s father was the caretaker of a prestigious tennis club in Rome, and as a youngster Adriano 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 at Kitzbuhel and Stockholm 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. In the final, he defeated Harold Solomon 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. He also won that year’s Italian Open (and there saved no less than 11 match points in the first round). And he finished off 1976 by helping Italy capture its first-ever Davis Cup title, winning two singles and a doubles rubber in the final against Chile. He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 4 that year.

Panatta is the only player to have defeated Bjorn Borg at the French 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 defeat Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis. He followed this up with another title in Tokyo in 1978.

Despite his power and perfect technique, Panatta was never at his best on fast surfaces. On grass courts, his only notable performance came in reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1979. He was knocked-out at that stage by the American Pat Dupre.

After the 1976 Davis Cup triumph, Panatta helped Italy reach the Davis Cup final on three futher occassions – in 1977, 1979 and 1980. The team lost to Australia in 1977, the United States in 1979, and to Czechoslovakia 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.