A volley, a backhand down the line. A poisoned left. The ball lands rolling on the clay and dies instantly. Rest in peace. Manuel Orantes is a brush and his racket sounds as in tune as the first violin of the Berlin Philharmonic.
The scene is not from the seventies, in its artistic (sorry, tennis) heyday. It's from a few weeks ago, in a tracksuit, body covered in scars. He has just turned 75. He is still the second most successful player in Spanish tennis: 35 titles. How long will it take Carlos Alcaraz to catch him?
Orantes has one of the most exciting stories in world sport that Félix Sentmenat told so well in De la barraca al podio (librosdevanguardia) and that continues to be written every day. Also today, while training a young promise. a talented little boy, who has the serve of the Australian Mark Philippoussis, and whose name is Tomás Arqued.
The tennis player from Granada is Godó's living history: seven finals played, three victories and four defeats in a tournament where the best in the ranking always attended. Now it's different. He is the one who has played the most finals after Nadal, who is a separate chapter in Barcelona Tennis... and will be for a few more years.
Manolo is still the second player in tennis history with the most victories on clay (and Nadal is not the first) and the protagonist of one of the most unexpected victories in the sport at the US Open in '75. He remembers her here in Magazine along with other anecdotes at a time when tennis had a flavor that has already been lost.
There is a moment when the coach misses a few drop shots that end up in the net and makes a face that is somewhere between joking and lamenting. A champion does not stop being one and neither does a fighter. A beautiful conversation, to laugh, think and if you want, shed a tear.
Mr. Orantes, you are in shape...
But I haven't played for a long time. Now with the new hip, and the elbow better, I can play a little. In the elbow you have the sensitivity of the drop shot, of some blows that otherwise you cannot control. This is like riding a bike, you don't forget things: how to do it...but I was stopped for a while.
I see a few scars...
Wrist, elbow, back... I retired at 34, every time I played I broke something different. My best years were '75 and '76. But I remember that at the beginning of the seventies, when I had already won the Godó in '69 and '71, I played the '72 semi-final with Stan Smith in five sets, I won, but my back was dusted. I lost the final with the Czech Kodes.
But he recovered...
The doctors told me that my condition was so bad that I had to pick up the phone in a specific way and I told them... how do you want me to play tennis (laughs). I will tell the rivals to throw the ball at me softly. In '72 and '73 I reached the finals, but when I played with those at my level, it was more difficult for me.
The other day he said that he was still, 40 years after his goodbye, the second with the most victories in the world on clay.
It's something extraordinary, the other day I found out, yes, and the most extraordinary thing is that the first is not Nadal, but Guillermo Vilas. He was five years younger than me… it was the beginning of the Open era. When I started I was still an amateur. In 1971, the first professionals, Gimeno, Rosewall, Laver... there were about eight who had contracts, they earned money with exhibitions.
I have never understood that transition period.
In 1971 there was already a circuit of 32 players and the masters was played at the Palau Blaugrana. Knows? In the Godó of '71 I didn't win a dime, they saved the prize, I was an amateur (laughs). The truth is that before it was played more on land and now the players are more dosed. I retired in '84, broken, I couldn't even train...
But he has never separated himself from tennis. And he didn't start playing...
He had played a few years as a professional and had made some money. I didn't have a family yet… I wanted to start one after my career. It is already known that my origins are very humble, I arrived from Granada to a barrack when I was two years old. My mother had died and my father remarried. We were seven brothers and at nine years old I was already earning something as a ball boy at La Salut. Nine pesetas an hour. We had a great time
It sounds optimistic, despite everything...
Well, in Franco's time, everything was so hard... I collected balls. He didn't go to class. But from time to time he took classes with a teacher named Rincón, a former player. And Pedro Mora. When we finished the game, we went to the fronton. It happened that, when he was 12 years old, Santana won Roland Garros. And he started talking about tennis and they let me train at the club...
Did you ever intend to try something different?
When I retired I helped organize the Health, I directed the club school for one year. I liked it, I had experience, I had seen how many clubs worked. And a year passed and a few people thought it was worth building a new tennis club in which the owners were in charge and the members were subscribers who were not in charge. This is how Bonasport was born and I was able to set up my professional school. We won several championships.
They have passed through here...
Arantxa Sánchez, Corretja, Berasategui... I never left tennis because I didn't know how to do anything else, I didn't study almost anything, fair enough. I went to school at six in the afternoon after playing... we started winning as teams and I was number one in the Salut... But if I played, of course I didn't win money. But one of the club took me in as an assistant, I did errands... that was until I was 15. Then I joined Blume and there they already gave us English classes... everything, but it wasn't a career.
Seven Godó finals in nine editions: it is said soon.
And Godó is not what it was in my time. Then all the best players played, now it's different. Yes before: the four finals I lost were with Kodes (I had a bad back), in '73 and '74 with Nastase (in the semifinals I beat Borg). I won the one in '76 and I lost the one in '77 with Borg. Emerson, Laver, Santana... there were professionals and amateurs, but we played together. Imagine that I would have played without them, what I would have won without Nastase, Connors, Borg... After Nadal, I am the Spaniard who has the most titles, 35, and that I lost 36 finals... it hurts you to lose but look who you are with competed There were many more of us than when Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray won titles. The level was impressive. But what Nadal has done is even more so.
Little is said about the US Open that he won in 1975... it is incredible what he did.
He lost against Guillermo Vilas in the semifinal by 2 sets to 1. In the fourth he was 5-0 and 0-40 down. I won that set and took the victory in the fifth 7-5. That year I won nine tournaments…
It is one of the feats of world sport. How did you gain strength from that?
(A long pause). Look, there is a story with Vilas… We had become friends. I played with Antonio Muñoz, but he did not have an individual ranking to go to Wimbledon. In 1974 I did double the amount with Guillermo, we went to Sweden and Buenos Aires, we started winning games. We got there and then we had to go to Brisbane. His fame went to his head. He won that Australian tournament, I reached the semifinals. But from then on, every time we faced each other, I wasn't going to beat him, I was going to kill him, to the fullest.
He beat him many times.
Before the US Open I won in England, Rome... I beat him four times and he didn't even win a set. I was going 100%. Neither he nor Borg liked to play with me...
And the semifinal arrived in which he was practically defeated in New York.
I imagine he already saw himself as a winner. We finished at 11 at night and the final was at two in the afternoon. I was so angry with the 0-5 in the fourth set, that I told myself 'I'm going to kill you' so that tomorrow you'll be defeated against Connors. And I went to screw him. I had an iron mentality. The back had improved. In '72 I played in the Roland Garros final, I had a bad time, I won and ended up losing.
Today, after that effort and playing the next day, I would have lost.
It was the logical thing. I finished late, I had dinner at the hotel. I played the final and won the Grand Slam against the favorite 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3…
75 was sensational and in 76, when everything seemed lost, it came back to life. How many lives does he have?
At the beginning of '76 my elbow was very bad. Doctor Bestit from Barça helped me a lot, he told me to stop for a few months and recover. Then it happened that Slazenger took out a metal aluminum racket and in the Witty store, in Aragon on Passeig de Gràcia. They were very good people, they offered it to me. “Take it and throw some balls.” It was the only one they had. She hit it and my elbow didn't hurt. So I took it...
And he began to win mercilessly...
(Laughs) Yes. With that racket I won the tournament in Tehran, the one in Madrid and the one in Barcelona. I made finals in London and Stockholm and won again in Tokyo. I rose so much in the ranking that I qualified for the Masters. And with that racket I beat him (also Connors) in Houston. I had the six wooden ones in case it broke, but I didn't use them. (Laughs)
Is that era comparable to the current one in any way?
In my time it was a 'all against all', it was much tougher. You played with wood, you were more technical, you played to annoy others, to make them dizzy. We could not compete as much nor would we beat those of today as much. There is so much muscle... Before there was more psychology.
