Lea Pericoli, the flamboyant Italian who livened up Wimbledon in the 1960s by playing in fur, feathers and lace, died on 4 October at the age of 89.
Anyone seeking to become a champion fights a continuous war. It is a very educational sport that taught me a lot. How to lose with a smile, to always start again, one 15 after another. I couldn’t ask for more. Lea Pericoli
Born in Milan on 22 March, 1935, Pericoli spent her formative years in Africa, after her businessman father, Filippo, moved the family to Ethiopia when Lea was a toddler, and where she was brought up in Addis Ababa.
Given her first racket at the age of 10, her love for the game only grew after she was sent to boarding school in Kenya, and, by the age of 17, Pericoli was determined to forge a career in tennis.
She moved back to Italy to pursue her dream, a decision that launched a lifetime of contribution to the sport, both on and off the court.
A crafty, clay court specialist, Pericoli’s career lasted from the early 1950s until the mid-70s, in which she captured an unmatched 27 Italian national titles across singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
On the world stage, she reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros 4 times, in 1955, 1960, 1964, and 1971, and at Wimbledon on 3 occasions, 1965, 1967 and 1970.
A talented doubles player with a strong net game, she reached the French Open semi-finals in both women’s and mixed doubles, partnering Silvana Lazzarino, and made the championship match at the Italian Open 5 times.
She considered the summit of her career to have been in singles, though, beating Billie Jean King in the Swiss Open at Gstaad in 1969.
“All self-taught, my tennis was instinctive and wild,” Pericoli once said of her game, and contemporaries remember being driven crazy by her lobs and drop-shots, among other tactical tricks.
A solid Top 20 player at her peak, Pericoli ranked as Italy’s No 1 for a record 14 years between 1959 and 1976, and, if she didn’t hold the country’s top spot during this period, she was inevitably the No 2.
In 1963, she was a member of Italy’s team at the inaugural staging of the Federation Cup, now the Billie Jean King Cup, going on to play in 17 ties over 9 years, for an overall win-loss record of 15-15, and, in 2007, the ITF presented Pericoli with the Fed Cup Award of Excellence.
Lea Pericoli cause a flurry at Wimbledon in 1955
© Intercontintentale/AFP via Getty Images
Pericoli’s sense of style and adventure made her a glamorous figure on the global tennis scene, and she was a favourite of British designer Ted Tinling, taking to the courts in all manner of eye-catching, sometime outrageous, dresses.
Tinling first clothed Pericoli for her debut, aged 20, in 1955, when she caused a gasp on Court No 4 after a tumble ‘revealed, beneath her abbreviated skirt, a flurry of pale pink tulle’, as reported by The Daily Telegraph.
Nicknamed ‘La Divina’, her outfits were adorned with materials such as lace, lamé, tulle, feathers and mink.
She was adept at igniting press interest, keeping her outfits a secret until she arrived on court, where photographers were conscientious about documenting any fall or other skirt-displacing hiccup.
Her furious father ordered her to tone down her outfits, but, by the 1960s attitudes had relaxed, and she turned out in increasingly avant-garde Tinling outfits, testing Wimbledon’s no-colour rule with flashes of silver and gold.
When she threatened to wear trousers in 1969, though, even Tinling was shocked, saying: “Playing at Wimbledon is like going to church.”
Her favourite on-court outfit was ‘the one with diamonds that I wore in South Africa’.
Pericoli won a few modelling contracts but, as she told the Sunday Mirror: “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.”
Lea Pericoli (C), seen alongside Camila Giorgi and Nicola Pietrangeli, looks on during the draw ceremony for The Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2014 in Rome
© Michael Regan/Getty Images
In 1964 she married Tito Fontana, and, after stepping away from the tour at the age of 40, Pericoli broke barriers for women in media.
She became a respected tennis and fashion writer, radio announcer, and the first female tennis commentator on Italian TV.
She also became a stalwart Fed Cup ambassador for Italy, a role that connected her to generations of Italian players.
On hearing the news of Pericoli’s passing, 2015 US Open champion Flavia Pennetta acknowledged her legacy when she wrote on Instagram: “I have been fortunate to know you and share with you amazing moments of my career and life. I will carry your precious teachings with me forever.”
Ingrid Löfdahl Bentzer, the former Swedish No 1 and WTA founding member, remembers a fiercely intelligent woman whose innate elegance and flair could serve as a distraction to the casual observer – at their peril.
“As an athlete, she celebrated a more traditional form of femininity but if there’s a trailblazer, that was Lea as well,” said Löfdahl Bentzer. “At a time when the focus was on American efforts to grow the game, she was part of the first wave of European players who fought to make things better on the women’s side, and she inspired those of us who followed to do the same.
“Lea was meticulous about her bouffant hair and she saw herself as a lioness, prowling around gracefully – but she had a heart of gold. We had such a lot of fun over the years. She was adored by many, and her loss creates a void in a lot of people’s lives. She was a dame.”
Lea Pericoli posing ahead of a match at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship 1955
© Stan Folb/ Intercontinentale/AFP via Getty Images
Pericoli overcame breast cancer in 2012, having beaten a uterine carcinoma in 1973, a battle that forced her to miss a couple of seasons before making a brief return to the circuit in the mid-70s.
Casting aside the taboos of the time, she was characteristically up-front about her diagnosis, and became a high-profile advocate for the Italian League for the Fight Against Tumours.
“Anyone seeking to become a champion fights a continuous war,” Pericoli once said. “It is a very educational sport that taught me a lot. How to lose with a smile, to always start again, one 15 after another. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Current ATP World No 1 Jannik Sinner, a fellow Italian, paid tribute to Pericoli on Instagram, posting a picture of the two together with the message: “A special moment that I will remember forever. A great lady and legend of Italian tennis”.
Spain’s King of Clay, Rafael Nadal also mourned Pericoli’s death on Instagram, posting: “Thanks for everything. You will always be remembered by all of us.”
