Manuel Santana

Manuel Santana played in the 1968 Olympic demonstration tennis tournament, winning the title in both singles and doubles. It was only a footnote to one of the greatest Spanish tennis careers. Santana won four major titles, winning Roland Garros in 1961 and 1964, Wimbledon in 1966, and the US Championship in 1965. In 1965 he was the #1 ranked amateur player in the world. He was the first Spaniard to win a Grand Slam title. He also won the 1963 French doubles titles, alongside Roy Emerson.

Santana first played Davis Cup for Spain in 1958 after winning the Spanish Championship in singles. He had been Spanish Junior Champion in 1955 and in 1956 was awarded the Real Madrid Tennis Cup, and played on the Spanish team that won the Galea Cup. In 1965 and 1967 he led Spain to the Davis Cup final, but they were unable to overcome the Australian dynasty. He played 119 Davis Cup matches, winning 91, and stepping down after the 1973 matches.

Santana later became a coach in both the United States and Romania. He served as Spain’s Davis Cup captain from 1981-85 and again from 1995-2000. In 1983 he became director of the Puente Romano Tennis Club in Marbella, a club that was later renamed the Manolo Santana Racquets Club, and Santana became owner of the club in 1997. From 2002-17 Santana was director of the Madrid Masters event.

Santana received numerous honors for his tennis career, including induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island (USA) in 1984. His other honors include the Gold Medal for Sporting Merit (1965), the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica (1966), the Gold Medal of the Villa de Madrid (1970), the Medal for Sporting Merit of the Madrid City Council (1996), the Great Cross for Sporting Merit (2000), the 2008 Golden Racket of the Rome Masters tournament, the Great Cross of the Dos de Mayo of the Community of Madrid (2008), the 2010 Francisco Fernández Ochoa Award from the National Sports Awards, which rewards career achivements, and the FIT Philippe Chatrier Award (2020).