The first great Spanish tennis player

Spain has been bringing joy to the sport of tennis for many years, and on Sunday we will take a look at the pioneer of all great Spanish tennis players: Manuel Alonso de Arizaga.

He was born in San Sebastian in November 12, 1895, Manuel Alonso de Arizaga belongs to a wealthy family from the city of San Sebastian, who loves sports. Alonso’s father introduced tennis to the area, and both Manuel and his older brother José María (known as Pepe) devoted themselves to tennis.

As a young man, Manuel played sports such as hockey, rowing and skiing. He studied civics in Madrid and during this stage played hockey with a team Atletico Madrid, With whom he won the King’s Cup three times.

His brother Pepe won the Spanish Championship in 1912, and three years later, Manuel equaled this feat, a feat he repeated in 1919 and 1920. In the following year, He graduated as a civil engineer.

But he had already tasted the joy of international competition, since he participated in 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. In the individual tournament, he reached the quarter-finals, where he was eliminated by Britain’s Turnbull. In doubles he was paired with his brother Pepe, but they fell in the first round.

Fame came to him in 1921, when he played at Wimbledon. At that time the system was rather strange: a “challenge tournament” was held and the winner had the right to face the previous year’s champion, and from there the winner of Wimbledon emerged. Alonso fell in the Challenge Championship final to South African Brian Norton. Although there were two sets to zero in his favor and 5-3 in the third set. The San Sebastian native wasted two match points and ended up forfeiting the match due to issues with a sore hand.

In the same year 1921 he was part of it Manuel Pérez Siouan, Count of Jomar, The first Spanish team to participate in the Davis Cup. Spain fell in the first round to the United Kingdom, but Manuel Alonso has the honor of winning the first point in the history of Spanish tennis in this tournament, after defeating Englishman Gordon Lowe. The result of the draw was 4-1.

In 1922, he repeated his participation in the Davis Cup and this time Spain defeated India in the first round, thus managing to go to the The final stage is in Philadelphia. But in the United States, where the Spanish team was nicknamed the “Manolosan” (as repeated by Alonso and Count Gomar), they fell to Australia 4-1 in the Candidates’ Final. It will be more than 40 years until Spain gets this far in the Davis Cup again.

José María “Pepe” Alonso (Wikipedia).

Curiously, after those Davis matches, an American businessman saw Alonso and upon learning that he and his brother Pepe were engineers, made them a job offer.. They settled in the United States and began working for Fuller Company, Dedicated to manufacturing conveyor belts. A year later, Manolo Alonso went to work for the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), a company he did not leave until his retirement where he would eventually become vice president.

Being an American citizen, he was able to participate in the US Open, but his best participation was in the New York Championship. It was to reach the quarter-finalson four occasions.

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Alonso participated again, reaching the round of 16 in the singles tournament and the quarter-finals with his brother Pepe in the doubles. Davis did not play that year, but he did play in 1925 and 1926. He did not play again until the 1931 and 1936 editions. After this latest version, which is more than 40 years old, I decided to retire from tennis. By the way, to this day he remains the oldest Spanish player to play in a match in this competition.

In the United States he became a famous player, which allowed him to rub shoulders with movie celebrities such as… Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks or Mary Pickford. In 1927 he was chosen as the fifth best player in the world and won many tournaments across the country.

Already in 1977 he became the first Spaniard inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame. Five years later, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed He died on October 11, 1984, 39 years and three days ago, at the La Concepcion Clinic in Madrid. He was 88 years old.

I hope you liked the article. See you next week.

Tags: Spain, Manuel Alenson | Stored in: tennis