Adriano Panatta: A Tennis Legend's Journey and Passions

Adriano Panatta will be a guest on TV tonight on 'Splendida Cornice'. Starting at 9:30 PM on Rai 3, Geppi Cucciari's in-depth talk show returns with many guests, including the former tennis player, so let's find out more about him. Adriano Panatta, who he is, his career. Adriano Panatta was born in Rome on July 9, 1950 (almost 74 years old) and has lived since childhood in close contact with the world of tennis thanks to his father Ascenzio, caretaker of the 'Tennis Club Parioli'. Counted among the best Italian tennis players of all time, his palmarès boasts 10 major circuit singles tournaments out of 26 finals played, in addition to 18 doubles titles out of 29 finals. In 1976, his magical year, he triumphed in singles at the Italian International and the Roland Garros, the only Italian tennis player to have achieved the double in the same season and, in the Open era, to have won a Grand Slam event. That same year, he also contributed to the only, historic victory of the Italian national team in the Davis Cup. He was ranked world number 4 in August 1976, the highest ATP singles ranking ever achieved by an Italian tennis player since the introduction of the computerized ranking system, and was the Italian number 1 for a total of 284 weeks. To date, he is also the only Italian tennis player to have won two titles in the category corresponding to today's ATP Masters 1000 in singles, in 1975 he became the first Italian to qualify for an edition of the men's singles finals of the Masters. He was the only player in the world capable of defeating six-time tournament champion Björn Borg at the Roland Garros. He also won the title at the Italian National Championships for six consecutive years, from 1970 to 1975. In 1980, together with Paolo Bertolucci, he won the doubles tournament in Monte Carlo, to date the only title won in the Open era by an Italian pair in the Principality's tournament. Wife and private life. Many flirts have been attributed to Adriano Panatta when he was at the peak of his career. Among them, the names of Loredana Bertè (it seems that Panatta introduced Borg to Bertè), Novella Calligaris, Serena Grandi. The latter, a guest on Vieni da Me, confessed to having had a relationship with Panatta when he was already married. Adriano Panatta got married for the first time in the early '60s to Rosaria Luconi. From the first marriage were born between 1975 and 1980 three children: Niccolò Panatta, 47 years old, Alessandro Panatta, 43 years old, and Rubina Panatta, 42 years old. The legend of our national tennis decided to marry for the second time in 2021 Panatta, with the lawyer Anna Bonamigo. The two have been together since 2014 and live in Treviso, where Adriano also manages a famous tennis and padel club. The 'disease'. Adriano Panatta's 'disease' is golf, his great hobby. 'I think it was written that I should fall in love with golf: playing tennis, to defend myself from blisters, I wore a glove'. Then, a few years later, the spark. 'I reached a friend, we had to talk about business. He was in a Dryving Range. He invited me to try a shot. The ball rose and the demon of golf took possession of my soul'. Then he explained to the Newspaper how the 'disease' took him over the months: 'I thought it was easy: after all, you have to hit a stationary ball. It's not like that: golf is a really difficult game. At the same time, however, everyone can really play it, against everyone. It's an unimaginable phenomenon in other disciplines. Thanks to the handicap, it can happen that an amateur wins against a professional. Golf has given me great joys and great humiliations, I love the contradiction. Think that even Tiger Wood takes lessons from a master because it's very easy to go off swing.