Manolo Santana’s footprint in Xàbia
The first Spaniard to win Wimbledon is remembered with a plague that remains at the old social club in Tosalet.
Wednesday 15th December 2021 – CARLOS LÓPEZ with Mike Smith
Last weekend, the Spanish tennis player Manolo Santana passed away. He was the first Spaniard to win the famous Wimbledon tournament in 1966 and he achieved 4 Grand Slam titles: 2 Roland Garros (Paris), 1 Wimbledon (London) and a US Open (New York).
Santana was a tennis legend in this country and his success reached Xàbia. In the golden years of the Club de Campo Tosalet, the tennis player inaugurated the central court of the sports complex. In fact, on one of its sides, where the umpire’s chair once stood, there is a plaque in which he honours his presence in March 1969.
It is the second court of the three that the Club de Campo Tosalet initially had (later, in the 80s and 90s, it was expanded in the upper part with a fourth and two paddle courts) and the plaque remains intact as a reminder of this old social-sports complex that the residents of that urbanization enjoyed.
Santana participated in some other acts at the old social club, as this poster of a tournament in which he participated in August 1971, along with other tennis figures of that time, attests. (Photo courtesy of Arxiu Municipal de Xàbia).
