The All England Club was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our 1966 gentlemen’s singles champion, Manolo Santana.

As Spain’s first Wimbledon singles champion, he did much to popularise the sport of tennis in his country and paved the way for a host of future stars, including Wimbledon champions Rafael Nadal, Conchita Martinez and Garbiñe Muguruza.

Manuel Santana Martinez, known as Manolo, was born in 1938. He grew up in poverty and left school at the age of ten to work as a ball boy at a local tennis club. However, his talent for playing the sport soon became clear and he was taken under the wing of some members of the club, who helped him pursue tennis as a career. By 1958 he was Spanish champion.

As with most Spaniards, Santana was most at home on clay courts and it was no surprise that his first Grand Slam titles came at Roland-Garros. In 1961 he defeated the defending champion Nicola Pietrangeli in the final and, three years later, he regained the title, again beating Pietrangeli in the final.

Santana was less comfortable on grass. However, despite famously stating that the surface was ‘for cows’, he was determined to master it. He won the US Championships on the grass of Forest Hills in 1965, beating Cliff Drysdale in the final and, the following year, he missed Roland-Garros to concentrate on preparing for Wimbledon.

His dedication was rewarded with the title. After close matches against Ken Fletcher and Owen Davidson in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively, both of which he won 7-5 in the fifth set, he defeated Dennis Ralston 6-4, 11-9, 6-4 to lift the Challenge Cup.

In 1967, Santana achieved an unwanted distinction when he became the first defending champion to be knocked out in the first round, losing the opening match of The Championships to Charlie Pasarell. He remains one of only three players, along with Steffi Graf and Lleyton Hewitt, to suffer this fate.

The following year, tennis appeared at the Olympic Games for the first time since 1924, as a demonstration event in Mexico City. Santana won the title, beating fellow Spaniard Manuel Orantes in five sets in the final.

After retiring as a player, Santana remained a prominent and popular figure in the tennis world, serving as Spain’s Davis Cup captain and tournament director of the Madrid Open. He continued to be a regular visitor to Wimbledon, taking part in celebrations for the Centenary Championships in 1977 and the Millennium Championships in 2000. He was a Chairman’s Guest in 2006 and 2016, the 40th and 50th anniversaries of his historic title.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.