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Chapter 1: The Making of Unified Tennis Philippines
chapter 1:
THE MAKING OF UNIFIED TENNIS PHILIPPINES
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Tennis is one of the sports that has a very rich heritage in the history of the Philippines. The sport was able to reach its peak during the time of legends, Felicisimo Ampon, Johnny Jose, Willie Hernandez, and Raymundo Deyro. Felicisimo Ampon is considered to be the greatest Filipino tennis player in history, and at only 5 foot 3 inches tall, he was once considered the best pound-for-pound tennis player in the world. He represented the country in several Davis Cup competitions, the premier international team event in men’s tennis, for almost 30 years, and holds the Philippine all-time record for the most singles (34-26) and with total wins (40-35) in Davis Cup history. He was known for winning the Gold Medals in the 1934 Far Eastern Games, the 1950 Pan American Games tennis singles, and the 1958 Asian Games tennis doubles, and in 1968 Chinese Recreational Club Open Tennis he also won the doubles title.
the 1960s. Johnny Jose, the last Filipino to win a tennis gold medal in the Asian Games in 1962 in Jakarta, Indonesia, posted a career record of 20 wins in the Davis Cup. The Emperor and Empress of Japan used to see Jose on the courts when the Davis Cup was held in Japan in 1959 and 1960. Jose even played tennis once with the Empress. Willie Hernandez also represented the country in different international prestigious tennis tournaments. He played for the Philippines from 1958 to 1965. His achievements include playing against the great Rod Laver, beating the legendary Arthur Ashe, and playing at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open in
He also set up the Willie Hernandez Tennis Academy at the Manila Polo Club that run for more than 8 years and developed some of the best players the Philippines has produced including Davis Cuppers, National Team members, and top Juniors like Felix Barrientos, Roland So, Raymond Suarez, Roland Kraut, Derrick Santos, Randy Villanueva, Tonito Payumo, and John Rey Tiangco. Raymundo Deyro on the other hand won two gold medals at the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, in the singles and men’s doubles. He defeated his doubles partner Felicisimo Ampon in the singles final. The Asian Games titles were the biggest wins of Deyro’s career, along with an Oslo tournament that he won in 1953, also against Ampon. Deyro made nine Grand Slam singles appearances during his career. In 1946, at the U.S. National Championships, Deyro came close to upsetting fourth seed Alejandro Russell in the third round but lost in five sets. He also made the third round at the 1948 Wimbledon
Championships. In 1950, Deyro was eliminated in the first round of Wimbledon and the second round of the French Championships. At Wimbledon in 1951, he played against world number one Frank Sedgman in the opening round and lost in straight sets. His best performance came at the 1953 French Championships, where he made it to the fourth round, before being eliminated by second seed Gardnar Mulloy. Deyro had been seeded 15th and it would be the only time he entered a Grand Slam tournament as a seeded player. In the 1953 Wimbledon Championships, he had wins over Henry Billington and Tony Pickard, then lost to Australian Jack Arkinstall in a third-round match that went to five sets. Upon their retirement, it took decades before the Philippines was able to produce world-class players and compete on a high level in the Davis Cup. The last time the Philippines was qualified to play for a spot in the World Group was in 1991 when it played against Sweden. The team was bannered by Felix Barrientos, Roland So, Camoy Palahang, and Raymond Suarez.
It took several years before the Philippines became competitive again in the Asia/Oceania Group, until such time when the national team was reinforced by Fil-Am Cecil Mamiit, Eric Taino and in recent years, Treat Huey and Ruben Gonzales. The Philippines, however, cannot just rely on foreign talents and must be able to develop world-class local talents in the long term. This motivated sports patrons Jean Henri Lhuillier and Bobby Castro to initiate a new tennis federation with the end goal of helping develop local talents to become competitive on the world stage.
