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Charlie Pasarell and the longest match at Wimbledon
112 games against Pancho Gonzales in 1969, the US number one ranking, and the tournament he founded afterward.
Charlie Pasarell was born in San Juan in 1944 and rose to become the number one player in the United States in 1967. But his name is in the history books for a match he lost.
Wimbledon 1969
In the first round of Wimbledon 1969, Pasarell faced Pancho Gonzales, a legend already 41 years old. The match was played across two days, ran 112 games, and was the longest in the tournament's history until Isner against Mahut in 2010.
Pasarell won the first two sets. Gonzales, after play was suspended for bad light and resumed the next day, came back to win the remaining three.
That match was played before Wimbledon had a tie-break. Marathons exactly like it are what pushed its adoption.
What he did next
After retiring, Pasarell was one of the founders of the tournament now played at Indian Wells, California, one of the biggest events on the calendar outside the four Grand Slams.
So a Puerto Rican did not only play at the highest level: he helped build part of the structure of modern professional tennis.
Read next: tennis in Puerto Rico.