article by Nicola Pucci
I don’t know if in a few hours Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori will be so exceptional (they certainly are very good for having accomplished such a feat) as to give themselves a doubles Slam title at the Australian Open in the final which will see them opposed to Bopanna and Ebden (for the Bolognese would be the second after the one won alongside Fabio Fognini in 2015, again in Melbourne), what is certain is that Italian tennis in these modern times is rewriting a good part of its personal roll of honor in tournaments that offer sporting immortality.
It is good, therefore, to rewind the tape of history, take a look at what was and remember that if Adriano Panatta and Paolo Bertolucci live in the hearts of us elderly enthusiasts who in the Seventies followed their exciting exploits in the Davis Cup and in tournaments prestigious ones such as Rome and Montecarlo, two of their predecessors, obviously Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola were the only other doubles players capable of reaching a Slam finaleven putting the cup intended for the winners in their pockets.
The name of Pietrangeli, as we all know, has returned to the forefront with Italy’s exploits in the Davis Cup, capable of bringing home a trophy that had been missing since 1976 (we will also talk about it on these pages, sooner or later, I promise), and if a he still holds the title of the most successful tennis player in Italian history with two singles successes at Roland-Garros (1959 with the South African Ian Vermaak and the following year with the Chilean Luis Ayala), precisely on those clay courts and in the same year he also achieved the first Italian success in a doubles event. Associated with that Orlando Sirola, born in Rijeka in 1928, who has not been with us for many years now (1995) but equally deserves to be back in the news.
Paris 1959, therefore, when Pietrangeli and Sirola, who had won the Italian doubles title consecutively since 1955 (and would do so 10 times in total), they show up for the clay court world championship with the excellent credentials of a final already reached in 1955 (beaten by the Americans Seixas and Trabert), to which also add the final act of Wimbledon in 1956, forced on that occasion to give up to the Australians Hoad and Rosewall. And if Nicola has already achieved success in singles, with Sirola – who in 1960 will be defeated in the semi-final by Ayala who will thus deny an all-Italian final – eliminated in the third round by the Dane Kurt Nielsen, here in doubles the two great friends are awaited by two champions of excellent stature, Roy Emerson and Neale Frasernone other than the number 1 couple in the world.
There is a six year difference between Pietrangeli and Sirola, one, Nicola, extroverted and exuberant, the other, Orlando, shy and thoughtful. AND if the Roman (Tunisian by birth) is almost unplayable from behind, the Fiume native, at 197 centimeters tall, has a natural propensity for the game of flight, which means that the two tennis players complement each other perfectly. And their palmares is there to prove it, with three semi-finals at Wimbledon (in addition to the 1956 final), six finals, unfortunately always lost, at the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome (in addition to a seventh, interrupted and never completed in 1960, against the same Emerson and Fraser), another semi-final in Paris in 1960, when Emerson and Fraser took revenge, and two Davis Cup finals, 1960 and 1961, when Italy was the first European country. since 1937 when Great Britain succeeded, reaching the final act by interrupting the USA/Australia duel.
The silver salad bowl, in those two years, ended up in the hands of the Oceanic team, with the unbeatable Emerson and Fraser who on both occasions beat Pietrangeli and Sirola and in both cases bringing the third and decisive point to the Australian cause. And on these two occasions it is also a question of revenge, because that historic Roland-Garros final, 1959, the two blues took it home, 6-3 6-2 14-12, hoisting the green-white-red flag for the first time on the highest flagpole of a Slam tournament double.
May it be a good omendear Bolelli and Vavassori.