Raul Ramirez
- Thread starter Tshooter
- Start date
Many players are not the subject of discussion here.
The main causes lies in the fact that
- the media have forgotten about them,
- there are no movies on youtube and
- above all they have not collected slam titles.
Some great players (Smith, Courier, Rafter, Noah... and others) are not very reliable despite the slam victories.
But almost all the players who did not win the slam are as if they had not existed.
These are great talents like Henman or Gene Mayer, Gottfried or Okker.
Raul is one of them. He played pretty badly in the slam while he was very continuous on the Tour, certainly a danger for the best players but also in the other big tournaments of the period (Los Angeles, Phila, Indy, Washington, Vegas, Memphis, Palm Springs, Dallas, Masters etc.) could not win.
His main victory I think was Rome 1976.
1976 was his best year.
Great doubles player, with Gottfried dominated the late 70s.
jean pierre
Professional
Great player, very elegant. Good serve, good volley, great drop shot. Semi-finalist in FO and Wimbledon.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
The only Mexican player (that I can think of anyway). He was pretty good on grass making the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1976 and, the following year, beat our best British player of the time, Mark Cox, in the final of Queen's.
Mainad
Bionic Poster
Ah yes, heard of him although a bit before my time. Won the US Open in 1963 and won doubles titles there and at Wimbledon in the early 60s.
Phoenix1983
G.O.A.T.
I’m always interested in hearing about these ‘very good, but not quite great’ players from previous eras. Especially when they come from countries with no particular tennis tradition.
hoodjem
G.O.A.T.
Moi aussi. I’ve learned a lot on here.
Osuna died at age 30 in 1969. He is regarded as Mexico’s greatest.
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pc1
G.O.A.T.
Just a little trivia about Ramizez, aside from being an excellent singles and doubles player (I loved watching him and Brian Gottfied play doubles) played a crucial role in Arthur Ashe devising a plan against Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon final. Ashe noticed how Ramirez with his touch shots (junk and lack of pace) gave Connors some trouble despite losing in straight sets. So that was a factor in which Ashe's game plan.
I still maintain that the biggest factor was that Connors was injured but no one remembers that. They focus on Ashe's brilliant plan which may NOT have been so brilliant if Connors was healthy. Ashe and Connors played a number of times after that but Ashe never won again.
Ramirez was excellent in Davis Cup beating players like Connors, Smith and Tanner.
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Tshooter
G.O.A.T.
Don't forget his topspin forehand which I thought was his weapon.
Tshooter
G.O.A.T.
Ha, you found my old friend 240p !
I used to watch a ton of Fibak back in the day (I may have had the "Red Head" racket at the time) and I don't remember him playing with Lendl.
(Brian) Gottfried was a heck of a player too.
treblings
Hall of Fame
Ha, you found my old friend 240p !
I used to watch a ton of Fibak back in the day (I may have had the "Red Head" racket at the time) and I don't remember him playing with Lendl.
quality of the video is poor, quality of play is much better
i´ve never hit with the "Red Head", or Head Professional. my racquet for some years was the Snauwaert Brian Gottfried Autograph
Fibak, i believe, was something of a mentor to the young Lendl.
