Lis Arilla, member 007 of Tennis Barcelona, ​​license to remember: "I was born here, in the club"

“I WAS BORN ON MARCH 5, 1941 at Tennis Barcelona, ​​at the very same club when I was in Ganduxer. We had a little house there, like we had here, in Pedralbes, with the move. My parents came from Aragon and they were the janitors of the campus. Yes, I was born there, the midwife came. They tell me that she was two years old and she was already dragging the racket. I went to the Ganduxer Teresianas with Juan Gisbert, we were classmates. And then, to the Jesuits of Sarrià.

“MR. CARLOS GODÓ VALLS was the great architect of the transfer. In Ganduxer, the club was renting and he proposed that he be the owner of the land. Half of the partners remained, but it was achieved. We came in ’53, which was the year of the first trophy. This was a well-known farmhouse, and since you couldn’t touch it, it was made into a semi-detached house. I lived here until 1970, when I got married.”

“YOU KNOW SOMETHING? I worked at La Vanguardia. Before going to Australia, it must have been the year 57-58. I was about 15 years old, I left the Jesuitas de Sarrià and all I thought about was tennis, I was crazy about the racket. And my father, as a janitor, spoke with Don Carlos, and he called me and asked me what he was doing. I told him that he was doing expertise in an academy. He told me to go to the newspaper. I was very good in Pelai street. They put me in administration. I remember Abellá, Domínguez, Salomó, Mezquíriz, Mariné, Saura…

“I didn’t stay at LA VANGUARDIA for a long time, because then Davis came, but I saw Don Carlos a lot because he came to all the qualifiers, he was a great fan. It didn’t matter where he went: Romania, Australia… he never failed. Neither he, nor Juan Antonio Samaranch, nor the Marquis de Cabanes (José Garrigues y Nogués), who was the president of the federation”.

A SIMPLE LIFE. “Life in the Arilla family home was simple. My father closed the club at six in the evening. Where we are talking now, this did not exist, only the farmhouse. The annex chalet was built and there was more social life there. My mother, Paca, was very famous for the dishes she cooked at the Ganduxer club. It was very homemade, it fed about 15 or 20 people, but it was not a typical restaurant, there was no menu”.

A FORCE DOUBLE PLAYER. “I played in Godó for at least a decade. People think that I specialized in doubles for fun, and it was not like that. It happened that Andreu Gimeno and I went to Australia in 1958 and we stayed for five months. Going there was literally going to the end of the world. There were a few Spaniards who were going to work north, in Queensland. They were deceived because they worked in the sugar cane and what they earned in the half year they harvested they spent the next six and they did not have enough to be able to take their families there”.

FIRST TRIUMPHS. “They financed our trip to Australia and we trained with Harry Hopman. Andreu and I did very well. I won the junior Australian Open. Then I won the junior Roland Garros. Also the Orange Bowl. All in individual. Later, in Madrid, in an exhibition with Santana, a Catalunya-Castilla, in the presence of Generalissimo Franco, I injured myself. I fell badly and broke my knee, ligaments on one and both menisci. He was 18 years old. I spent a year and a half without being able to play ”.

FINAL AT ROLAND GARROS. “I was going to recover at Barça and I spent the whole season with them, and Ángel Mur Sr. recovered me. That knee was never the same as before. When the Davis Cup teams were made, Santana and Juan Gisbert used to play the singles, I had missed the boat a bit. And thank you that I was still able to play ten years. I’ve gone far at Wimbledon three times, made the doubles final at Roland Garros. We lost to Emerson and Fraser, they were very good, shitty. But I suffered a lot. Today doubles players earn less and are less well known. My teammates ask me: ‘Why don’t you play?’ I’m fine with my head, but not with my knees. I had the most serious injury.”

“EL GODÓ WAS A DOOR TO THE WORLD. When we beat the Americans and the Soviets in Davis, Spain was not known, it was not even known where it was. El Cordobés, Lola Flores and little else. When I went to Australia, they didn’t even know. In this sense, the Godó trophy was a symbol of openness because the best tennis players in the world came. The fifties were for the Americans. The first was Seixas, who played very well and very elegantly; Arthur Larssen was a little touched after the Korean War, but he had a feel for the racket… in that sense he was the best. Herbert Flam won several tournaments, and I don’t want to leave Tony Trabert behind. Then in the sixties came the Australians: Mervyn Rose was wonderful…”.

THE AWARDS. “Today tennis players are like bullfighters, they carry their gang; before we went alone, and there were few prizes: you won Roland Garros and they gave you 50 pounds, and now you get two million. Had he been paid, Roy Emerson would be a billionaire today.”

PIONEERS. “Of the pioneers of that time are Manuel Orantes (74 years old), younger than me, and Juan Gisbert (80), who lives in the United States. Santana, Gimeno, who have already left, began to break stone and laid the foundations for the Nadal and Alcaraz of today. They are two different galaxies. With the rackets of before, made of rigid wood, you ended up with destroyed arms. With so much vibration, the elbow suffered.

IN WORKS. “During that first Godó Trophy the club was under construction and it was played here, on the first court. And it was like that for a few years, at least until 1958. Then, when tennis began to take off, it was played on what was known as the Talismán court, which occupied the space of one of the three courts that today are dedicated to mounting the Central”.

FROM FIRST TO LAST. “I have been lucky enough to see all the editions of the Godó Trophy. One year we ended on a Monday because the rain postponed the final on Sunday. In another it was played indoors, at the Palau dels Esports, if I remember correctly. While I can I want to explain that time, which many no longer remember. But if there are people who no longer even know who Pete Sampras is…”.

SEVENTY YEARS. “History and personality are invaluable. How many tournaments offer the tradition of the one organized by the RCTB-1899? Right now… how many elite championships are organized by a social club? Very few”.