Spanish Tennis Championship

The Spanish Tennis Championship (Spanish: Campeonato de España absoluto masculino is an annual tennis competition organized by the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation since its foundation in 1910. It was held every year except between 1937 and 1939 due to the Spanish Civil War.
Throughout the years, the Men's Spanish Championships expanded beyond the main event, introducing additional categories such as second and third-division tournaments, repechage rounds, and handicap competitions; overall, the men’s doubles event was added in 1923, the women's singles and doubles in 1925, and the mixed doubles in 1927. The Spanish Championship was quite popular during the 1960s with the emergence of tennis players such as Andrés Gimeno, Manuel Santana, and Manuel Orantes.
In September 1909, Luis de Uhagón of Madrid, Jorge Barrié of San Sebastian, Ernest Witty and Manuel Tey of Barcelona, among others, founded the Lawn-Tennis Association of Spain (Spanish: Asociación General de Lawn Tennis, AGLT), which would become the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation in 1940. To enhance the prestige and sporting significance of the ALTE, it was decided to establish the Spanish Championships, with its first tournament taking place in 1910 on the courts of the Madrid Lawn-Tennis Club, which is currently part of the gardens of the Italian Embassy in the Salamanca district. The inaugural champion was Luis de Uhagón, who successfully defended his title in 1911 at the RLT Turó in Barcelona.
Establishing the competition nationwide proved challenging, as it required strong commitment from clubs to ensure its success. One of the key factors in its consolidation was the emergence of Spain's first great generation of tennis players, including the Count of Gomar, who won four consecutive titles from 1916 to 1918, and the Alonso brothers Manuel and José María, with the former winning in 1915 and 1919–20. In 1923, the tournament expanded with the addition of the men's doubles event, which was won by Antonio Juanico and Ricardo Saprissa, the latter having also played as a goalkeeper for RCD Espanyol in Barcelona. In that same year, Eduardo Flaquer won the first of his three national titles, thus matching Gomar and Alonso with three Spanish titles, a record that was soon destroyed by Enrique Maier, who won seven consecutive Spanish Championships between 1929 and 1935, as well as six in doubles: with Francisco Sindreu (1929, 1932, 1934), Eduard Flaquer (1930), Juan Manuel Blanc (1935), and with Fernando de Olózaga (1944).
The first women's singles event was held in Santander in 1925, and it was won by Concha Liencres, while the first women's doubles was won by the pair Josefa Gomar and Baroness de Segur. Two years later, in 1927, Gomar paired with Flaquer to win the first mixed doubles event. In its first years, the women's singles event was dominated by Bella Dutton, who won five championships, including a three-peat in 1931–1933, a feat that was immediately matched by Josefa Chávarri in 1934–1936, but she was unable to break the record because of the outbreak of the Civil War, after which she won two more titles (1941 and 1943) for a total of five, a record that was broken by María Josefa Riba, who won seven consecutive titles between 1944 and 1950, followed by eight in 1953. Since then, both Pilar Barril and Carmen Perea have won 9 titles each.
The Spanish Championship was quite popular during the 1960s with the emergence of tennis players such as Andrés Gimeno, Manuel Santana, and Manuel Orantes.