Ramiro Gonzalo Benavides Saravia (born 30 January 1947) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from Bolivia.

Biography

Benavides, who was born in

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

, received a scholarship to the University Corpus Christi in Texas. He completed a degree in business administration and played collegiate tennis. He then played professionally, with his best performance on tour coming at the Florence Grand Prix tournament in 1975 when he had a win over world number eight

Adriano Panatta Adriano Panatta (born 9 July 1950) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. He won the French Open in 1976, and was the only player ever to defeat Björn Borg at Roland Garros, doing so on two occasions. He is also the only Italian man ...

and made the semi-finals. His

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

career for Bolivia spanned 32 years and consisted of eight ties. He first played in 1971 and made what was his last appearance for many years in 1982, but made a comeback in 2003 at the age of 56 to play a doubles match against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. At the time this made him the second oldest player in Davis Cup history, after Togo's Gadonfin Koptigan Yaka. Now a tennis coach, Benavides competes regularly on the seniors tennis circuit.

Challenger titles

Doubles: (4)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benavides, Ramiro 1947 births Living people Bolivian male tennis players Sportspeople from La Paz