The amateur years
Mexico · born Mexico City, 1938 · died 1969 · right-handed · US champion at Forest Hills in 1963 and twice Wimbledon doubles champion
All playersBack to the rankings
No. 4
Seed when he won the 1963 US Championships, still the only major singles title won by a Mexican
4
Major titles, all on grass
1960
First unseeded pair to win the Wimbledon men's doubles, with Dennis Ralston
3
Wimbledon singles quarter-finals: 1962, 1964 and 1965
1963
Ranked world No. 1 by Lance Tingay
Rafael Osuna was born in Mexico City in 1938. As a boy he played table tennis to a national standard and basketball for Mexico before going to the University of Southern California, where the coach George Toley rebuilt his strokes. With USC he won the NCAA singles in 1962 and the doubles from 1961 to 1963, and graduated in business administration in 1963.
He won his first major at Wimbledon in 1960, in the doubles with his USC team-mate Dennis Ralston, the first unseeded pair to take the title. With Antonio Palafox he won the US doubles in 1962 and Wimbledon again in 1963, and he led Mexico to the 1962 Davis Cup final, where they lost to Australia. In September 1963 he won the US Championships at Forest Hills as fourth seed, beating Frank Froehling 7-5, 6-4, 6-2, and finished the year ranked No. 1 in the world by Lance Tingay. He stayed amateur, working for Philip Morris while still playing full time, and won the singles and doubles at the tennis exhibition of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
In May 1969 he won both his singles and the doubles as Mexico beat Australia 3-2 in the Davis Cup in Mexico City. Ten days later, on 4 June 1969, he was among the 79 people killed when Mexicana Flight 704 crashed into mountains near Monterrey. He was 30. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, and the tennis stadium of the Centro Deportivo Chapultepec in Mexico City bears his name.
| Wimbledon doubles 1960 | With Dennis Ralston, unseeded: beat Geoff Oakley and Humphrey Truman 6-3, 6-4, 9-11, 5-7, 16-14 in the first round, Rod Laver and Bob Mark 4-6, 10-8, 15-13, 4-6, 11-9 in an 86-game semi-final lasting 3 hours 30 minutes, and Mike Davies and Bobby Wilson 7-5, 6-3, 10-8 in the final |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles 1963 | With Antonio Palafox, unseeded, beat Jean-Claude Barclay and Pierre Darmon 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. They dropped eight sets in the tournament, still joint second most by a winning pair |
| US doubles 1962 | With Palafox at Longwood, beat Chuck McKinley and Dennis Ralston 6-4, 10-12, 1-6, 9-7, 6-3, a 64-game final. Osuna and Palafox also reached the US doubles finals of 1961 and 1963 |
| US Championships 1963 | Beat Frank Froehling 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 in the Forest Hills final, standing well behind the baseline to lob back Froehling's serve. He also reached the US semi-finals in 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1965 |
| Wimbledon 1963 singles | Lost a close third-round match to Manuel Santana; Lance Tingay wrote that "if justice were done, this would have been the final" |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Men's doubles | with Dennis Ralston |
| 1963 | Men's doubles | with Antonio Palafox |
| US Championships | ||
| 1962 | Men's doubles | with Antonio Palafox |
| 1963 | Men's singles | |
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
"We had to tear his game apart, but he could move like a GOD!"
The person behind the player.
Mexico City, 1940s and 1950s
At 10 he won Mexico's national table tennis championship for adults, barely able to see over the table, and at 15 he was the youngest member of the national basketball team. His nephew said the quickness came from table tennis, chasing the drop shots of older opponents.
Source: Tennis.comWimbledon 1960
George Toley suggested that Ralston, an incoming freshman, should partner Osuna at Wimbledon. They had never played together and Toley only hoped they would settle before the college season. They scraped through their first match 16-14 in the fifth set and went on to win the title.
Source: Tennis.comForest Hills, 1963
He finished the 1963 final with a backhand volley into the open court and then, on his next serve, won the title. He jumped over the net in joy.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameIn the stands
His sister, Elena Osuna de Belmar, was too nervous to watch him calmly. "Between points he would walk toward me, he knew where I was sitting and he would wink the eye to say, 'don't worry, I am going to win.'"
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameDavis Cup, 1962
Osuna and Ralston were team-mates at USC but opponents when Mexico beat the United States in Mexico City in 1962. When fans swarmed the court after the win, Osuna's first move was to push through them to console his American friend.
Source: Tennis.comMonterrey, June 1969
Days after the crowd carried him off the court on their shoulders after the win over Australia, he died in the crash of Flight 704. He was identified by the Rolex watch he had been given for winning the Wimbledon doubles in 1960.
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