Pasarell, Charlie

Charlie Pasarell Jr., or Charlito, began playing tennis at home in Puerto Rico . His father, Big Charlie Pasarell, was a strong tennis player himself and participated in the US championships . Charlito's first coach was the finalist of the 1939 US Championship, Welby van Horn . At the age of 12, Charlito had already met on the court with one of his main future rivals and partners: in the quarterfinals of the junior tournament of the Orange Bowl, in his way was a black American, Arthur Ashe . This match Pasarell won, and in the future for a short time became the first racket of the United States, but later Ash overshadowed him on the court ^[2] .

Charlie Pasarella's amateur career continued until early 1968 . During this time, he won more than a dozen tournaments in singles, including twice (in 1966 and 1967) - the United States Indoor Championship. In 1965, he became a finalist in the US doubles championship, and in 1966, while studying at the University of California , he became the champion of North America among students in singles and doubles. According to the results of 1967, he was named the first racket of the United States ^[3] (in this hierarchy, compiled by the US Tennis Association , professional tennis players were not counted). In 1968, he was a member of the United States national team , which eventually won the Davis Cup , although he did not play in the final match: by this time he had become a professional, and only amateurs were allowed to play at the Davis Cup at that time.

Pasarella's transition into professionals coincided with the beginning of the Open Era in tennis, when they began to allow amateurs and professionals to play at the same tournaments. This step, which laid the foundation for Pasarella’s future administrative career ( see Contribution to the development of tennis ), at the same time significantly complicated his life on the court. If Arthur Ashe fits well into the new framework, Pasarella's singles success after the beginning of the Open Era went down to nothing: from 1968 he won only two tournaments and lost six times in the finals. His other achievement was reaching the quarter finals of the 1976 Wimbledon tournament after victories over Vijay Amritraj , Adriano Panatta and Phil Dent , but his most famous singles match in this period was played in the first round of the same tournament in 1969 . In this match, Pasarell played against professional veteran Pancho Gonzalez , who was then 41 years old. The marathon match stretched out for two days, the net playing time was more than five hours, and Pasarell, winning the first two sets with a score of 24-22, 6-1 and not implementing seven match bols, lost the next three sets 14-16, 3-6 , 9-11. In terms of length, this match remained a record for Wimbledon for more than 40 years, until a new record was set in the 2010 game between John Isner and Nicolas May ^{[2] [4]} .

In doubles, however, Pasarell continued to perform quite successfully, having been in the finals of three Grand Slam tournaments (including one time with Ash), and in only ten years playing in 23 finals and winning five of them. In 1974, he returned to the US team in the Davis Cup, brought her together with Eric van Dillen the only point in a sensationally lost match against Colombia. The last two finals in doubles (one of them - at the January Australian Open ) Pasarell held in 1977 , but continued regular performances until the fall of 1979 , once again returning to court in 36 years, at the 1980 US Open, where another rival partner Clark Gröbner made it to the third round.

Damages (4)

Singles (8)

Doubles (23)

Shortly after becoming professional, Charlie Pasarell began to focus not only on his own performances on the court, but also on the development of tennis in general. Already in 1969, Charlie, Arthur Ash and Sheridan Snyder founded the United States National Junior Tennis League. The task of the new organization was to attract children from problem families and districts to the sport, giving them the opportunity to continue schooling and distracting them from street criminal activity. The National Junior League remains to this day the most massive tennis organization in the United States, with more than 950 branches throughout the country ^[3] .

In 1971, Pasarell, who had signed a contract with the World Tennis Professional Championship (WCT) by that time, became one of the founders of the Association of Tennis Professionals (APR) , whose goal was to express the interests of players in shaping the rules and calendar of tournaments in the early years of the Open Era . From 1971 to 1982, Pasarell remained a member of the board of directors of the new association, in 1980 taking up the post of its vice-president. Since 1985, he has represented the interests of players in the International Men's Professional Tennis Council ^[5] .

In 1981, Pasarell, permanently residing in California (his wife, Shairen, a local native ^[5] ), was included in the administrative staff of the professional tournament in La Quinte , and the following year took over as CEO. He continued to hold senior positions in this competition for three decades. During this time, the tournament, which was experiencing serious financial difficulties and was on the verge of closing, moved to Indian Wells and turned into one of the central events of the tennis calendar. His attendance increased from 30 to more than 370 thousand spectators - the fifth figure among all tennis competitions after four Grand Slam Tournaments , and now it is the largest joint tournament of the APR and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ^[3] . In 2012, Pasarell broke up with the Indian Wells tournament to devote himself to developing a resort facility in Puerto Rico ^[6] .

Charlie Pasarell was also a member of the ATP coaching group that worked in China in 1979 and led a column in Spanish in International Tennis Weekly ^[5] with another former professional, Leto Alvarez . The totality of his achievements in the development of tennis brought him in 2013 a place in the lists of the International Tennis Hall of Fame ^[3] .

• Profile on ATP website (eng.)

• Profile on the ITF website (English)
• Profile on the Davis Cup website (eng.)

• Results in singles (English) in the database of Tennis Archives
• Results in the finals of tournaments (English) in the database of the Worldwide Tennis Database (search by name)