Fabrice Santoro: The Magician’s Farewell Tour

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:50:57 +0000

Fabrice Santoro’s dizzying career of twenty years of competing in Grand Slam tournaments will come to an end either at the U.S. Open or perhaps next year’s Australian Open. He is profiled in the August edition of Tennis magazine that arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and last week was featured in an excellent piece in The New York Times, pointing out that he has played 20 of the 24 players ever ranked No. 1 in the world since the 1973 ATP system began, beating all but four. His game with two hands on both sides, spins, drop shots and lobs is like no one else above a 4.5 NTRP rating. I saw his underspin bring Jan-Michael Gambill nearly to tears in the second round of the 1999 U.S. Open, a rare match of players hitting two hands on both sides. I hope he hangs on as long as he can because I am am sorry to see him go. There is no one else like Fabrice, and in the era of hardhitting 6 foot, 6 inch galuts wielding rocket launchers with Luxilon strings, there will never be another to compare.

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The Great Santoro

Joe Samuel Starnes — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:17:39 +0000

Fabrice Santoro does not have a huge serve, a big forehand, or any killer weapons unless you count sky-brushing lobs or devious drop shots. His ATP bio lists him as five-feet-ten-inches, but I suspect he’s not a millimeter more than five-seven or eight. He was born in 1972, and this December will turn 36 years old. Santoro often hits two-handed from both sides, and more often than not, his spin of choice is underspin. In spite of all this, Santoro won his sixth ATP title of his 20-year-career this past weekend, taking the Hall of Fame Championships. He has been ranked in the top 100 every year since 1990, and continues to add to his wins, notching win 451 on Sunday (he also has 418 losses.) He is now ranked 60, and has been as high as 17 in 2001. A collector of old rackets, Santoro wants to one day open a tennis museum in Paris. The fact that an undersized player without the traditional put-away shots can hold his own among the best in the world in a day of 150 mph serves is a tribute to not only his wily playing style, but to the subtlety and strategy allowed by the game of tennis. The game needs more magicians, and he is an inspiration to club players everywhere who feel overmatched by a younger, harder-hitting opponent.

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Top Spin Blog » Fabrice Santoro

Fabrice Santoro: The Magician’s Farewell Tour

The Great Santoro