Tennis icon Manolo Santana dies at 83

Tennis has lost its smile. Spanish sport, another of its great pioneers. Manolo Santana, the genius, has gone to Marbella at the age of 83. The void it leaves is as great as its achievements. Champion of Roland Garros (1961 and 1964), US Open (1965) and Wimbledon (1966) knocked down the doors of the Grand Slams, still in black and white, for the Spanish who came later. Because before Gimeno, Orantes, Nadal, Ferrero, Bruguera, Costa, Moyá, Arantxa, Conchita and Muguruza were there. Alone, illuminating a gray Spain who was trying to raise his head after the Civil War to which he discovered the Davis Cup and a “posh” sport that with him ceased to be so. He put a racket in each house.

Spanish tennis pioneer

“Spain was so short of victories that when people like me came out, Fede Martín Bahamontes, Ángel Nieto, Paquito Fernández Ochoa or Seve Ballesteros it seemed like a miracle. We did everything alone.. Everything was on us. So I am very happy that these triumphs have helped others have the means, “he said in an interview with AS when it was 50 years since his triumph at the US Open.

Manolo Santana, simply Manolo for the entire world of tennis that adored him, had been with the lowest biorhythms for several years, with the lowest voice point, but with the same old smile. Because ‘Manolín the ball boy’, who started at the Velázquez Club to help his family (his father was a republican reprisal) ended up becoming ‘Supermanolo’. The nice boy who defeated the Australian monsters (Emerson, Stolle, Laver or Americans) on some grass courts that had never been seen in Spain.

The evolution of a myth

He was born on May 10, 1938, in the middle of the Civil War. He grew up in a ‘beehive’ with his mother and four brothers sharing a bathroom with the whole building and with the help of the Romero Girón family, who took a fancy to him, he made his way into tennis. “A lucky guy”, as he defines himself and titled the biography he wrote with the help of his son Manolo. Always grateful to life, always enjoying it as a gift.

The Davis Cup gave him fame, with the 1965 and 1967 finals in Australia (both with a 4-1 defeat). Even with Nadal, he is still the record man for Spain (wins, doubles, knockouts, years …) and served as captain twice. In addition to his two Roland Garros, he won the US Open on grass in Forest Hill in 1965 where he was carried on the shoulders by some Spaniards dressed as baturros after receiving the trophy from Governor Robert Kennedy. And, of course, Wimbledon 1966 with the Real Madrid crest on the chest and the attempted kiss on the hand of the Duchess of Kent.

The best ambassador of his sport

Enter here amateur period (he had offers to become a professional like Andrés Gimeno or Rod Laver but rejected them with the underhand financial help of Juan Antonio Samaranch) and the Open Era (since 1969) won 72 tournaments. He never played the Australian Open, which prevented him from winning the Grand Slam. And in 1966 he was number one in the world, although the classification was not official until 1973. Santana was the beginning of everything.

To be a ‘Santana’ was to be a genius. It was. On and off the track, where he became the best ambassador for his sport. As affable with the king or a prime minister as with the ball boys or the last journalist to come to the tennis ‘tribe’. Funny, cheerful, with a smile on his mouth and the phone open. A seducer who transcended sports. A close legend, who never forgot where he came from.

Personal life

When it comes to personal life, the tennis myth was Married four times and father of five children, since 2013 he was inseparable from Claudia Rodríguez, his last wife. Hall of Fame member, was vital to lift the Madrid Open in 2002, a tournament that has grown under his direction, in which he gave up the baton in 2019 and served as honorary president. Common in the box of any Grand Slam, in Davis or in the press conferences of ‘his’ Madrid Open it will be strange not to see him again. But his legacy remains. Enormous. The one of the great pioneer. Lucky guy who always worked for it.