"I couldn't be the role model. Panatta was pure talent. It's easier to follow someone like Björn Borg, keeping a kid training against a wall for four or five hours a day. But to condemn yourself to that amount of work, you needed the mind of someone like Borg. Italians are different, they need to have fun. Take two kids, one Swedish and one Italian, and put them in front of a wall to hit balls: after fifteen minutes, the Italian is already bored, while after six hours, you have to stop the Swede."
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Adriano Panatta
Adriano Panatta (born 1950) is a retired Italian professional tennis player. He won the French Open in 1976, becoming the first Italian man in the Open Era to win a major singles title. Panatta was also the only player ever to defeat Björn Borg at Roland Garros, doing so twice.
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