The amateur years
Mexico · born Guadalajara, 1936 · US and Wimbledon doubles champion with Rafael Osuna, 1962 and 1963
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1963
Wimbledon doubles champion with Rafael Osuna, as an unseeded pair
1962
US doubles champion with Osuna at Forest Hills, in five sets
1962
Davis Cup Challenge Round with Mexico, after beating the United States in Mexico City
1959
Pan American Games gold medal in men's doubles
1960
US mixed doubles finalist with Maria Bueno
Antonio Palafox was born in Guadalajara on 28 April 1936, into a family of tennis players. He was Mexico's No. 2 in 1959 and won the Mexican championship in 1958 and 1963, beating Rafael Osuna in the 1963 final. His best singles results at the majors were the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1961 and 1963 and the quarter-finals of the US Championships in 1965.
His great partnership was with Osuna. They won the Pan American Games doubles in Chicago in 1959, the US doubles at Forest Hills in 1962, beating Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston in five sets, and Wimbledon in 1963. In the 1962 Davis Cup they helped Mexico beat the United States at altitude in Mexico City and go on to the Challenge Round, which Australia won. He also reached the 1960 US mixed final with Maria Bueno.
He later settled in the United States, living in Sands Point, New York, and won the Eastern Clay Court Championships at Port Washington in 1970 and 1971. As a coach at Port Washington he worked with the young John McEnroe.
| Wimbledon doubles final 1963 | With Rafael Osuna, unseeded: beat the unseeded Frenchmen Jean-Claude Barclay and Pierre Darmon 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| US doubles final 1962 | With Osuna at Forest Hills: beat Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston 6-4, 10-12, 1-6, 9-7, 6-3. He and Osuna were also finalists in 1961 and 1963 |
| US mixed final 1960 | With Maria Bueno, lost |
| Grass singles | Fourth round at Wimbledon in 1961 and 1963; quarter-finals at the US Championships in 1965 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Men's doubles | with Rafael Osuna |
| US Championships | ||
| 1962 | Men's doubles | with Rafael Osuna |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"He's the best tennis player we've got."
The person behind the player.
1962
Sports Illustrated called him "Potrillo", the colt, and described him as "by turns quiet and incendiary": when upset he would slam the ball into the backstop, but in calmer moments his placement was "one of the delights of the amateur game". He had a better all-round game than Osuna, the magazine thought, but less of his fire.
Source: Sports Illustrated, 19621962
The same article called him a weekend player who had reached Davis Cup level almost in spite of himself. He was about to go to university in Corpus Christi, Texas: "Now that I'm going to a university, I'm beginning to gain confidence."
Source: Sports Illustrated, 1962Mexico City, 1962
Mexico beat the United States 3-2 at the Chapultepec Sports Center, 7,434 feet above sea level. Palafox beat Jon Douglas in five sets, and with Osuna came from 2-4 down to take the first set of the doubles 8-6 against McKinley and Ralston, the pair they had beaten in the US final.
Source: Time, 1962Doubles tactics
With Osuna he experimented with a new serving formation: the net player stood low across the centre line and sprang up to intercept the return. Bud Collins credited them as its first users.
Source: CNNPort Washington
He later coached at the Port Washington Tennis Academy on Long Island, where John McEnroe developed his game under Palafox and Stanley Matthews.
Source: ATP Tour biography; WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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