Corrado Barazzutti

Born on February 15, 1953 in Udine, northeastern Italy, Corrado Barazzutti is a former tennis player from Italy who rose to fame by winning the Orange Bowl in 1971. A year before that he played for the Italian Davis Cup team, winning 44 of his matches. The Davis Cup stalwart again played for the team in 1976.

Known to fans as the ‘Little soldier,’ he reached the semifinals at the 1977 US Open, where he was beaten by Jimmy Connors and the French Open by Bjorn Borg. He also won five ATP Tournaments. He reached his career best in a Grand Slam by making it to the semifinals in 1978 and the quarterfinals in 1980. He was also a runner-up in Manila and Bastad in 1976, in Monte Carlo in 1977 and 1978 in Las Vegas.

He is now the non-playing captain of the Italian Davies Cup Team. He was on hand to celebrate the win of the Italian Team of the Fed Cup Title, its second title in four years. The Italian team won after Flavia Pennetta defeated Melanie Oudin.

All throughout his career, Barazzutti kept low profile and differed from other fist-pumping players by showing his prowess only on the court and not off it. He reached a career high ranking of seven in the ATP which he achieved on August 21, 1978. All in all, Corrado Barazzutti has achieved a total of six singles titles.

He lives in Rome, Italy, with wife Barbara and daughters Giovanna and Allesandra.