Andrés Gimeno might well be the best player you’ve never heard of. One of the first Spaniards to excel on the international circuit, his accomplishments were overshadowed by Manolo Santana’s 1966 Wimbledon title. He turned pro before proving himself as an amateur, and by the time tennis went Open, he was past his prime.
Gimeno is recognized today for his 1972 French Open title, his sole major championship, won when he was 34 years old. But he was hardly a late bloomer. One of the strongest juniors of the late 1950s, he won seven Davis Cup singles rubbers for Spain in 1959 and picked up a national title the same year–thanks in part to a five-set win over Santana.
In 1960, as a 22-year-old, he emerged as one of the best amateurs in the world. He won four clay-court titles in half a season, then stunned Roy Emerson and Rod Laver in back-to-back matches to add a championship at Queen’s Club. Poised for a breakthrough at Wimbledon, he instead lost to Ramanathan Krishnan in the second round. Then as now, stars were made at the majors, and the young Gimeno failed on the big stage. The 1960 Championships marked his tenth appearance at a slam, and he had reached only two quarter-finals.
His game was good enough. He would almost certainly have risen to amateur stardom before Santana’s ascent in the mid-1960s. But Jack Kramer needed fresh blood for his professional ranks. While Emerson and Laver were the obvious choices, the Australians wanted another Davis Cup or two. Kramer gave Gimeno a $50,000 guarantee for three years, and the young Spaniard immediately joined an international barnstorming tour, playing night after night against the likes of Alex Olmedo, Ashley Cooper, and Pancho Segura. He performed in front of more fans than would have seen him in a decade of majors, but the sideline status of the pro game did nothing for his reputation, either then or in the eyes of later pundits.
Most pros quickly sank or swam. The circuit had room for only one champion and a select group of credible challengers. Gimeno floundered against the power game of Richard González in 1961, and he proved unequal to prime-age Laver and Ken Rosewall. But the Spainard hung on. Throughout the 1960s, he was probably one of the top ten players–amateur or pro–in the world. In his career, he beat Laver at least 36 times, Rosewall 31, and González 18. He amassed winning records against the other mortals in the pro game: 34 wins against Olmedo, 21 over Barry MacKay, and 45 against Butch Buchholz.
Transplanted to another era, Gimeno would be remembered as a Stan Wawrinka type, a perennial contender who could deliver classic matches against the very best of his peers, even if he was rarely the favorite. Aficionados hailed the 1972 Roland Garros crown as an overdue laurel. Gimeno’s 2009 induction to the Hall of Fame was even more unfairly delayed.
Alas, the Spaniard wouldn’t have a final chapter to parallel those of Laver and Rosewall. In 1972, he tacked on titles in Eastbourne and Gstaad, then pushed Stan Smith to five sets at the US Open. But he hurt his Achilles tendon and sputtered through the year-end Masters event. The injury was slow to heal, and he won back-to-back matches only twice in the first half of 1973. Defending his title in Paris, he lost in the second round to the young Guillermo Vilas, 6-2, 5-7, 8-6.
Gimeno’s ailing calf allowed him one final push. When the Spanish national federation kicked him off the Davis Cup team for participating in the ATP’s Wimbledon boycott, he headed instead to Hilversum, the site of the Dutch International. A minor tournament in a crowded week, the Dutch attracted a middling field, and native hero Tom Okker was the overwhelming favorite. The fastest man in tennis, Okker delivered, reaching the final without losing a set. Gimeno had a tougher time, but despite stumbles against Australians Ian Fletcher and Geoff Masters, he survived the other half of the bracket.
The two men had faced off eight times. Even though Okker held a six-year age advantage, the veteran had won four of their encounters. On the Hilversum clay on July 22nd, Gimeno’s wiles kept it close. They battled for nearly four hours. The Spaniard grabbed the opening frame 6-2, but the Flying Dutchman took the lead with a pair of 6-4 sets. Gimeno kept the local crowd on tenterhooks, forcing a decider by winning the fourth in a tiebreak. Only then did Okker finally pull ahead for good, securing the fifth set and the match, 6-3.
The result was Gimeno’s career in miniature: A tough opponent, a near-miss, and few headlines to show for it. The next month, he would announce from Barcelona that his Achilles needed surgery. He would retire from competitive tennis. The game lost one of its leading lights, even if few fans recognized what a great competitor he had been.
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This post is part of my series about the 1973 season, Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts. Keep up with the project by checking the TennisAbstract.com front page, which shows an up-to-date Table of Contents after I post each installment.
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