Adriano Panatta

Adriano Panatta is an Italian former professional tennis player who was born on July 9, 1950. He won the French Open in 1976 and is the only player to have ever defeated Björn Borg at Roland Garros, and he did it a couple of times at that. He achieved a career-high ranking of fourth. At the peak of his powers, Bjorn Borg was an unplayable beast. Before the great Rafael Nadal earned the title ‘King of Clay’, the Roland Garros belonged to Bjorg. He was, quite simply, unbeatable in the clay-court Grand Slam. There have been only a couple of occasions when Borg lost any match at the French Open, and they were both inflicted by the same person. So this guy must have been a special talent to have beaten Borg at the French Open. Indeed, Adriano Panatta was a special player.

In 1976, he reached the top of his career by winning the French Open, defeating Harold Solomon in the final 6–1, 6–4, 4–6, 7–6. He saved a match point against Czechoslovakian Pavel Hutka in the first round. In the same year, he won the Italian Open, saving 11 match points against Australian Kim Warwick in the first round and defeating Guillermo Vilas in the final (2–6, 7–6, 6–2, 7–6). In the Davis Cup final against Chile, he won two singles and one doubles match to help Italy win its first-ever Davis Cup title. That year, he earned his career-high singles rating of No. 4 in the world.

Panatta was born in the city of Rome. His father was the caretaker of the Tennis Club Parioli, where he learned to play tennis on the club's clay courts when he was a child. Before turning professional, he was a successful European junior player. The Italian managed to emerge victorious in top-level professional titles in his early career at Bournemouth in 1973, Florence in 1974, and Kitzbuhel and Stockholm in 1975. Panatta defeated Jimmy Connors and Vitas Gerulaitis to win the World Championship Tennis in Houston in 1977. In 1978, he added another title to his resume in Tokyo.

On fast surfaces, Panatta was less successful. In 1979, he reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals on grass courts. Pat Du Pré beat him in five sets at that point (3–6, 6–4, 6–7, 6–4, 6–3).

After winning the Davis Cup in 1976, Panatta went on to assist Italy to reach the final three times more: in 1977, 1979, and 1980. In 1977, the team was defeated by Australia, in 1979 by the United States, and in 1980 by Czechoslovakia. Panatta has a 64–36 Davis Cup record overall (55–17 on clay). In 1980, at Florence, he won his final singles title. In 1983, he announced his retirement from the professional tour. Panatta has served as captain of Italy's Davis Cup team and event director of the Rome Masters since his retirement as a player. He also competes in professional powerboat races. Panatta was also a rally driver, competing in the Sanremo Rally in a Peugeot 309 GTI in a round of the World Rally Championship in 1992.

Grand Slam singles record

Australian Open: 1R (1969)

French Open: W (1976)

Wimbledon: QF (1979)

US Open: 4R (1978)