Yola Ramirez Ochoa
Alias: Yolanda del Monte Carmelo Ramírez y Partida
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| Bio | She was a Mexican tennis player active in the 1950s and 1960s who was twice a singles finalist and once a women's doubles champion and mixed doubles champion at the French Open. Considered the greatest Mexican tennis player of all time Ramírez was a singles finalist at the French Championships in 1960 and 1961. She lost the 1960 final to Darlene Hard and the 1961 final to Ann Haydon. She also was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon in 1959 and 1961, a quarterfinalist at the 1961 and 1963 U.S. Championships, a semifinalist at the 1962 Australian Championships, a semifinalist at the 1959 Italian Championships, and a finalist in Monte Carlo in 1959. She won the German Championships in 1957 and was a finalist in 1961. Ramirez teamed with Rosie “Pajarita” Reyes to win the women's doubles title at the 1958 French Championships and to reach the final at the 1957 and 1959 French Championships. She teamed with Billy Knight to win the mixed doubles title at the 1959 French Championships. With Edda Buding, she reached the women's doubles final at the 1961 U.S. Championships. She also won the women's doubles titles at the Italian Championships and in Monte Carlo, both in 1960. At the tournament in Cincinnati, Ramirez won the singles title in 1956 and the doubles title (with Sara Mae Turber) in 1955. She was a doubles finalist in 1956. In 1959, she won the South of France Championships in Nice, France. Ramírez won the singles titles at the 1960 Mexico National Championships and the 1961 Caribbean Lawn Tennis Championship. During her career, Ramírez had wins over Billie Jean King (in the second round of Wimbledon in 1961, which was King's first appearance at the tournament), Jones, and Christine Truman. According to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Ramírez was ranked in the world top 10 in 1957 and from 1959 through 1961, reaching a career high of world no. 6 in 1961, triumphed in 32 tournaments, 29 of them in singles. Ramírez amassed eight Pan American medals (four gold, three silver, one bronze) and was inducted into the Wimbledon and Roland Garros Halls of Fame. In her extensive career, Yola Ramírez was a national champion eight times. After retiring with a record of 375 victories, she dedicated herself to teaching, training figures such as two-time Olympic medalist Gigi Fernández. She was the only Mexican tennis player to place sixth on the international rankings and was inducted into the Wimbledon "Last Eight Club" Hall of Fame and the legendary Roland Garros Hall of Fame. Extract from Belén Cancino's article published in El Sol de Puebla on August 24, 2016: She was a little girl, no more than 10 years old, when she discovered the so-called white sport, while her sister Carmen “Melita” took tennis lessons to forget a family tragedy, the death of her eldest brother. “At that time, I didn't like it. I just went with my mother and sat and watched my sister,” she recalls. A little while later, when she started taking lessons, she would run away from them in order to swim in the pool, until one day her mother surprised her, scolded her, and forced her to choose between tennis and swimming. Some time later, Yola - as she prefers to be called - revealed her qualities: the swim, that body movement useful for the game, but above all she emphasized, the pass, that touch on the arm and wrist that gives a special effect to the ball and makes it difficult for the opponent to control it, and with that I discovered her liking for the white sport, "that was when I liked tennis, when I discovered my passion," she adds. Already determined, in the late 1940s, Yola received an invitation to attend a tournament in the United States, where she did not achieve good results, except that an expert coach recognized her qualities and invited her to one more tournament, in Cuba. "He was the one who opened the door to professional tennis for me," she adds. His legend began in Cuba, because since then he has traveled to many countries around the world and returned to Mexico, always winning. Over the course of eight years, Yola Ramírez racked up victories on virtually every court she stepped on and in every discipline. Just to mention a few of her triumphs, she won the National Tennis Championship for eight years, the Canadian Open, tournaments in several states across the United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and in other countries such as Argentina, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Istanbul, Greece, Austria, and Switzerland. His good results earned him his first invitation to the most prestigious tennis tournaments in 1954, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, which he attended several times. Until a few years ago, as a veteran, she also earned several awards, including the World Veteran Championship in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2000; the World Veteran Championship in Perth, Australia, a year later; and the World Veteran Championship in Welden, Austria, in 2002. But playing has not been the only thing that Yola Ramírez has done well, as she has also been the coach of several renowned tennis players who have won National and International Championships, such as Marnie Ochoa, Oscar Ortiz, Erica Clarke. She also found love on a tennis court. During the most successful years of her career, the Mexican Tennis Federation asked her to team up with Alfonso Ochoa Gámez, a young and also renowned tennis player, and participate in a national tournament to discover new talents in the white sport. Their shared love of tennis and their shared love for each other led them to fall in love, so they dated for four years before finally consummating their relationship in 1962, creating a solid marriage that produced two children, which they maintain to this day. Together they endured some difficulties, such as a financial crisis when Alfonso took advantage of a scholarship offered by an American university to complete his professional studies, but a few years ago they started their own company to install tennis courts. And for just over a year now, they've also dedicated every weekend to giving tennis lessons to underprivileged children and adolescents in the La Guadalupana neighborhood. For Yola Ramírez, the invitation from her friend Luis Carbajal to run this tennis "school" is another source of pride and satisfaction in her tennis practice, as she believes it is a way to give back to social progress. According to Yola Ramírez, the healthy and active lifestyle she has always led, except for a few months when she stopped practicing and teaching tennis every day, is the reason why, at 81 years old, she is in good spirits and health. "It's proven that those who play sports live longer and better, more lucidly, and I've been very fortunate to live with and through tennis, and that in addition to sports, I've made my life and many friends through sports," she concludes. |
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