Santana would have celebrated his 82nd birthday in the Mutua final: “Thank you very much”

Manolo Santana, pioneer and legend of Spanish tennis, turns 82 this Sunday. Born on May 10, 1938 in Madrid, he celebrates it at his residence in Marbella instead of before the men's final of the Mutua Madrid Open, where he would have been honored if the Masters 1,000 ATP and Premier Mandatory WTA in the capital had been held this week at the Caja Mágica.

This will not be the case due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the two-time winner of Roland Garros (1961 and 1964) and one of the US Open (1965) and Wimbledon (1966) passed away at home. With his wife, Claudia, who is the one who answers the phone, a medium through which congratulations have poured in, also on social networks, from institutions, personalities, colleagues, friends and admirers, who number in the thousands. If the Mutua Open had not been postponed (could still be played in 2020), it would not have been missed by the tournament's honorary president, who gave up his position as director last year to Feliciano López.

Santana, an icon in Spain during the 1960s and beyond, chatted briefly with AS, with that characteristic soft and whispering voice that has left him the passage of time and the bustle of many trips: “Here I am, in jail until the 18th,” he said with good humor. “Surely I would have been in Madrid, but you have to adapt to the current situation and resist everything they throw at me,” he said. “All the tennis people have called and texted me,” he explained, before sending a message of affection to AS readers: “I love and admire them just as they love me. Thank you very much.” Not long ago, back in February, Santana took the racket to ramble for a while at the club that bears his name. “I play whenever I can, also at home,” he confesses.

Teledeporte dedicates this Sunday a special (18:15) before the reissue of the final of the Madrid Open 2019 between Djokovic and Tsitsipas, which the Serbian won. A few days ago, he made a brief appearance on the public sports network on the occasion of the re-broadcast of another final of the Spanish tournament, that of Nalbandián against Federer in 2007, with the Argentine winning. On the possible celebration of the 2020 edition, he is not very optimistic: “I see it very difficult.” Word of a genius.