Lea Pericoli (22 March 1935 – 4 October 2024) was an Italian tennis player and later television presenter and journalist from

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. She reached the last sixteen of the French Open twice and the Wimbledon Championships three times, and is also famous for her choice of clothing.

Tennis

Grand Slam

Pericoli reached the last sixteen of the French Championships singles in 1960 and 1964. She reached the fourth round of Wimbledon three times in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

Titles

Pericoli won the Belgian open of 1955, after a win over Christiane Mercelis in the final, 6-3, 6-3.
Partnered by

Helga Schultze Helga Schultze (2 February 1940 – 12 September 2015), also known by her married name Helga Hösl, was a German female tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (si ...

, Pericoli won the doubles title at the 1974 WTA Swiss Open, defeating Kayoko Fukuoka and Michelle Rodríguez in the final in straight sets.

Fed Cup

Pericoli made her Fed Cup debut for

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in its inaugural year, 1963, and represented Italy in nine years of the competition, winning 8 of her 16 singles matches and 7 of her 14 doubles matches. Her last Fed Cup match was in 1975.

Italian international championships

She partnered with Silvana Lazzarino to reach five women's doubles finals in six years (1962–65, 1967) at the Italian International Championships, with four of those coming in consecutive years.

Clothing

In 1955, Pericoli played at the Wimbledon Championships wearing clothes designed by Ted Tinling. Her clothing generated so much interest in later years, that it was kept secret until her appearances on the court. In particular, her fur-lined clothing worn at the 1964 Wimbledon Championships caught the attention of observers. In 2001, the ''

Sunday Mirror The ''Sunday Mirror'' is the Sunday sister paper of the ''Daily Mirror''. It began life in 1915 as the ''Sunday Pictorial'' and was renamed the ''Sunday Mirror'' in 1963. In 2016 it had an average weekly circulation of 620,861, dropping marked ...

'' quoted Pericoli as saying "I became famous because of my clothes, not my playing." and "I didn't make any money from tennis, but if I'd been born 30 years later I would have become terribly rich like Anna Kournikova".

Other activities

Pericoli had a contract with Superga for modelling shoes. Pericoli was popular on Italian television in the 1970s, presenting the programs '' Paroliamo'' and ''Caccia al Tesoro'' in addition to commentating tennis. Pericoli was introduced to journalism by Indro Montanelli. She worked as a tennis and fashion journalist. She was a journalist for '' Il Giornale''. Pericoli wrote the autobiographical book ''Maldafrica'', published in Italian in 2009.

Personal life and death

She married Tito Fontana in 1964. Pericoli died on 4 October 2024, at the age of 89.

Awards

On 7 May 2015, in the presence of the President of

Italian National Olympic Committee The Italian National Olympic Committee (, CONI), founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in ItalyWithin Italy, CONI recognizes 48 national ...

(CONI), Giovanni Malagò, was inaugurated in the Olympic Park of the

Foro Italico Foro Italico is a sports complex in Rome, Italy, on the slopes of Monte Mario. It was built between 1928 and 1938 as the Foro Mussolini (literally Benito Mussolini, Mussolini's Forum (Roman), Forum) under the design of Enrico Del Debbio and, lat ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, along ''Viale delle Olimpiadi'', the Walk of Fame of Italian sport, consisting of 100 tiles that chronologically report names of the most representative athletes in the history of Italian sport. On each tile is the honoree's name and sport and the symbol of CONI. One of these tiles is dedicated to Lea Pericoli. Pericoli was awarded the Fed Cup Award of Excellence in 2007.

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pericoli, Lea 1935 births 2024 deaths Italian female tennis players Tennis players from Milan 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century Italian women journalists Italian television presenters Italian autobiographers Women autobiographers Italian women television presenters 20th-century Italian sportswomen 21st-century autobiographers