Manuel Santana Is No More

Legendary Spanish Tennis player Manuel Santana died on the 11th of December 2021. This tennis player who became a pioneer of Spanish Tennis died at the age of 83 in Madrid in Spain. He showed a spectacular talent for playing tennis from his childhood. He won four Grand Slam titles in his career. Roland Garros 1961, 1964; Wimbledon 1966; United States Open 1965 among other great conquests. He made the sport of tennis popular in Spain.

10-year-old Manuel Santana who was known as “Manolin” among his friends and family started to earn money by being a ball boy. This also made him able to support his family financially. He often said as he remember the days he spent as a ball boy at Club de Tenis Velazque, ”Four were for my mother and I kept two for myself.

Manuel Santana belongs to very humble family background. There were 12 family members in his house with a very minimal luxury that can be afforded by him and his family. This also drove the little boy to be the ball boy.

Then, 10 years after these youthful adventures, which he would combine with tennis training, he was crowned champion of Spain in Zaragoza, repaying the trust placed in him by siblings Aurora and Alvaro Romero-Giron, who were vital to his career, having covered all his sports and academic expenses.

He also won the gold medal in singles and the silver in doubles in Mexico City in 1968, where tennis was included as a demonstration event. He captained Spain in the Davis Cup between 1980 and 1985, and again between 1995 and 1999.

On the demise of the First Spanish Wimbledon champion, the only another Spanish Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal expressed his emotions through Twitter. He wrote, “Thank you a thousand times for what you have done for our country and for having opened the way for so many people. You have always been a point of reference, a friend and a person very close to everyone,” He further added that he will miss him.