Manuel Santana vs. Dennis Ralston, W final 1966
 

Thanks to Federerkooora (whoever he/she is) for posting this video on the tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIDBh0s1-_E

"My 3 toughest opponents, I'd have to say, probably, Roy Emerson, uh, Ken Rosewall and, uh, Lew Hoad." -- Dennis Ralston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTha8_RrJlI

Moose's stats on this: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=372470

Santana has the flair, but Ralston has footspeed and movement. good contribution.

Pretty good quality video ... considering. Thanks for posting. I very much enjoyed watching it.

Nice video. Ralston was a heckuva player. His comment re the three toughest players he faced is interesting.

Should be in reverse order. All three fast as cats around the court.

The video shows two excellent players. Great.

Maybe Ralston did not mention Rod Laver because Dennis had several surprising wins over Rocket in his first pro year.

Dennis Ralston was a stud. Big, strong, fast. Great shot maker. He was expected to be the next Pancho Gonzeles or Jack Kramer. From what I recall, he was a bit hot headed and didn't play his best when he got close to winning majors.

Great footage.Santana won his 4th and last amateur major and was still good enough around 1969 or 1970 to beat Laver and Emerson ( in the 1967 DC finals)

Young Ralston was called Dennis the ******, because he was sanctioned once by the US federation for attacking referees and linesmen. He was one of those dangerous players i miss in todays game. Players out of the range of ranking place 8-16, who were a nightmare for favorites in the last sixteen or last eight, but were not able to string seven wins together to win the whole major. Players who played better against better players than against lesser ones. And who had the nerves to get through the upset wins. I think for instance of Barry Mackay, Marty Riessen, Roger Taylor, Roscoe Tanner, Tim Mayotte, Joakim Nystrom, Larsson, Brad Gilbert.

There were some others too.But while I agree with some of your names, I don´t think Nystrom,Gilbert ( except vs Becker) and, of course Tim Mayotte were giant killers.They were much more similar to Ferrer, in that they were extremely consistent and tough to beat players, but they did not scare the great champions the way i recall Tanner or Lutz or Ralston did.

Curren beat Edberg, Connors and Mac at Wimbledon 85, Connors at Wimbledon 83 and Lendl at melbourne 1984.That was the definition of a giant killer.Leconte was also a kind of this player.

Ralston was above that level. He was the #1 ranked American for 3 straight years in the mid 60's, and, as I mentioned above was expected to be the next Gonzales or Kramer.

good vid. here's another i noticed on right side of this vid on youtube
 

great quality laver fraser 1960 wimbledon. rare to see such clarity in a 1960 wimby...

I had the chance to interview Ralston last year, here is what he said about that match:

For example at Wimbledon, when I went out there to play the finals of Wimbledon in 1966, I was playing Manuel Santana. I beat him two weeks earlier at Queens 64, 64, easily, and he was a really good player on clay, and a good player on grass, but I remember I beat Cliff Drysdale in the semis 12-10 in the fifth, and I had a day off and I walked out there and I was just flat. If I had a coach, someone who would have told me, you haven’t done anything yet, you’re in the finals, that’s great, so what, forget it , you’ve got to go out there and win this match, finish the job. But I went out there like “Ok, I’m in the finals” and my attitude wasn’t this is the most important match of your life, which it should have been, regardless, win or lose. I think I was comfortable, and I thought I was going to win, but I lost in straight sets, and that's a tough loss, but I learned something from it.

http://austintennis.blogspot.com/201...ew-part-i.html

Wow! Great interview. I love the way Ralston just speaks his mind. And you did a great job of asking the questions and then letting him run with it.

I like Santana, specially on clay but i liked even more Pietrangeli. But it's good tennis, specially for amateurs.

Both of the players you mentioned had a fantastic dropshot, they say.