Álvaro Betancur (born 3 January 1950) is a Colombian former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. Based in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, Betancur comes from Medellin originally and featured in seven

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

ties for Colombia during the 1970s. He played in Colombia's Inter-Zonal Final against eventual tournament winners South Africa in 1974 and won a dead rubber singles over

Byron Bertram Byron Bertram (born 29 October 1952) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa Bertram attended Parktown Boys' High School. During his career, he won one tour doubles title and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. ...

. His Davis Cup career also included a 1979 tie against the United States in Cleveland, where he lost singles matches to

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

and

Dick Stockton Richard Edward Stokvis (born November 22, 1942), known professionally as Dick Stockton, is an American retired sportscaster. Stockton began his career in Philadelphia, then moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as the sports director for KDKA-T ...

. While competing on the professional tour he reached a best singles ranking of 68 in the world. He twice made the second round of the

US Open U.S. Open or US Open are open championship sporting tournaments that are hosted in the United States and in which anyone, especially amateur and professional, or American and non-American, may compete. The term may also be applied to non-sporting ev ...

, with wins over

Billy Martin Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yankees. First known ...

and

Nick Saviano Nick Saviano (born June 5, 1956) is an American former tennis player and subsequent tennis coach. Career Saviano won one singles title during his career as a pro (1983 Lorraine Open). The left-hander reached his highest individual ranking on th ...

, in 1975 and 1978 respectively. His best performance on the

Grand Prix circuit Grand Prix Circuit may refer to: * ''Grand Prix Circuit'' (video game), a 1988 motor sports video game *Grand Prix tennis circuit The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix ...

was a semi-final appearance at the 1980

South Orange Open The South Orange Open, formerly known as the Eastern Grass Court Championships, is a defunct Grand Prix affiliated tennis tournament founded in 1970 as the Marlborough Open ChampionshipsBarrett, John. Tingay, Lance. West, Peter. (1971) World of T ...

. Betancur continues to live in Florida and is the director of coaching at Saddlebrook Preparatory School.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Betancur, Alvaro 1950 births Living people Colombian male tennis players Sportspeople from Medellín Colombian emigrants to the United States 20th-century Colombian sportsmen