Pancho Gonzales

Ricardo Alonso González or Richard Gonzalez, (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), who was generally known as Pancho Gonzales or, less often, as Pancho Gonzalez, was the World No. 1 tennis player for an unequalled 8 years in the 1950s and early 1960s. During that period, he played as a professional. Completely self-taught, he was also a successful amateur player in the late-1940s, twice winning the United States Championships. The tempestuous Gonzales is still widely considered to be one of the all-time great tennis players. Prior to the Open era, he was considered by many observers to be the greatest player in the history of the game. A 1999 Sports Illustrated article about the magazine's 20 "favorite athletes" of the 20th century said about Gonzales (their number 15 pick): "If earth was on the line in a tennis match, the man you want serving to save humankind would be Ricardo Alonso Gonzalez." The noted tennis commentator Bud Collins echoed this in an August 2006 article for MSNBC.com: "If I had to choose someone to play for my life, it would be Pancho Gonzalez." [The Collins article: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14489546/]

Career

Amateur

Gonzales was given a 51-cent racquet by his mother when he was 12 years old and taught himself to play by watching other players on the public courts at nearby Exposition Park in Los Angeles. Once he discovered tennis, he lost interest in school and began a troubled adolescence in which he was occasionally pursued by truant officers and policemen. He was befriended by the owner of the tennis shop at Exposition Park and sometimes slept there.

Because of his spotty school attendance and occasional minor brushes with the law, he was ostracized by the exclusively white, and predominantly upper-class, tennis establishment of 1940s Los Angeles, which was headquartered at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and which actively trained other top players such as the youthful Jack Kramer. During that time, the head of the Southern California Tennis Association, and the most powerful man in California tennis (and much of the country, given the way weather gave that region a head start in tennis) was Perry T. Jones, described an autocratic leader who embodied much of the exclusionary sensibilities that governed tennis for decades. Although Gonzalez was a promising junior, once Jones discovered that the youth was truant from school, he banned him from playing tournaments [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3604713]

Eventually he was arrested for burglary at age 15 and spent a year in detention. He then joined the Navy just as World War II was ending and served for two years, finally receiving a bad-conduct discharge in 1947.

According to his autobiography, Gonzales stood 6'3" (1.91 m) and weighed 183 pounds (83 kg) by the time he was 19 years old. Other sources generally credit him as being an inch or two shorter but in any case he would enjoy a clear advantage in height over a number of his most prominent rivals, particularly Pancho Segura, Ken Rosewall, and Rod Laver, all of whom were at least 5 or 6 inches shorter. Tony Trabert, who was badly beaten by Gonzales on their 101-match tour and who disliked him intensely, nevertheless once told the "Los Angeles Times": "Gonzales is the greatest natural athlete tennis has ever known. The way he can move that 6-foot-3-inch frame of his around the court is almost unbelievable. He's just like a big cat.... Pancho's reflexes and reactions are God-given talents. He can be moving in one direction and in the split second it takes him to see that the ball is hit to his weak side, he's able to throw his physical mechanism in reverse and get to the ball in time to reach it with his racket." ["Man with a Racket, The Autobiography of Pancho Gonzales, as Told to Cy Rice" (1959), page 129] The flamboyant Gussie Moran, who briefly toured with the Gonzales group, said that watching Gonzales was like seeing "a god patrolling his personal heaven." ["The Lone Wolf", by S. L. Price, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2002]

In spite of his lack of playing time while in the Navy, and as a mostly unknown 19-year-old in 1947, Gonzales achieved a national ranking of number 17 by playing primarily on the West Coast. He did, however, go East that year to play in the United States Championships at Forest Hills. He surprised the British Davis Cup-player Derek Barton, then lost a five-set match to the number-3 seed, Gardnar Mulloy. Following that, in the last major tournament of the year, the Pacific Southwest, played at the Los Angeles Tennis Club, he beat three internationally known names, Jaroslav Drobny, Bob Falkenburg, and Frank Parker, before losing in the finals to Ted Schroeder.

The following year, 1948, Perry T. Jones relented in his opposition to Gonzales and sponsored his trip East to play in the major tournaments. The top-ranked American player, Ted Schroeder, decided at the last moment not to play in the United States Championships and Gonzales was seeded number 8 in the tournament. To the surprise of most observers, he won it fairly easily by a straight-set victory over the South African Eric Sturgess in the finals with his powerful serve-and-volley game. As The New York Times story of that first win began, "The rankest outsider of modern times sits on the tennis throne." His persona at the time was strikingly different from what it would become in future years. "American Lawn Tennis" wrote that "the crowd cheered a handsome, dark-skinned Mexican-American youngster who smiled boyishly each time he captured a hard-fought point, kissed the ball prayerfully before a crucial serve, and was human enough to show nervousness as he powered his way to the most coveted crown in the world." This was Gonzales's only major tournament victory of the year, but it was enough to let him finish the year ranked as the number one American player.

The following year, 1949, Gonzales did badly at Wimbledon and was derided for his performance by some of the press. A British sportswriter called him a "cheese champion" and, because of his name, his doubles partner of the time, Frank Parker, began to call him "Gorgonzales", after Gorgonzola, the Italian cheese. This was eventually shortened to "Gorgo", the nickname by which he was later known by his colleagues on the professional tour. (Jack Kramer, in his autobiography, says that it was Jim Burchard, the tennis writer for the "New York World-Telegram" who first called him a "cheese champ".)" ["The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis" (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9), page 177]

In 1949, Gonzales returned to the American championships and, once again to the surprise of many observers, repeated his victory of the previous year. Ted Schroeder, the number-1 seed, had beaten Gonzales 8 times in 9 matches during their careers and was heavily favored — the single time Gonzales had beaten Schroeder, he was playing with a nose that had been broken the day before by his doubles partner's tennis racquet during a misplayed point at the net. In a tremendous final that has been called the 11th greatest match of all time", ["Tennis Magazine", on page 330 of "The Tennis Book", Edited by Michael Bartlett and Bob Gillen] Gonzales lost a 1-hour and 15-minute first set 16-18 but finally managed to prevail in the 5th set. Once again he finished the year as the number-one ranked U.S. amateur. Gonzales also won both his singles matches in the Davis Cup finals against Australia. Having beaten Schroeder at Forest Hills, he was clearly the best amateur in the world. Bobby Riggs and Jack Kramer, who had been counting on signing Schroeder to play Kramer on the professional tour, were then forced to reluctantly sign Gonzales instead.

Professional

Kramer

Gonzales was badly beaten in his first year on the professional tour, 96 matches to 27, by the reigning king of professional tennis, Jack Kramer. During this time, Gonzales's personality apparently changed from that of a friendly, happy-go-lucky youngster to the hard-bitten loner he became known as for the rest of his life. According to Kramer in his 1979 autobiography, "The worst thing that ever happened to Gonzales was winning Forest Hills in 1949.... At a time when Gorgo wasn't mature as a player he was pitted against Kramer, an established pro at his peak." Moreover, says Kramer, "Pancho had no idea how to live or take care of himself. He was a hamburger-and-hot-dog guy to start with and had no concept of diet in training.... On the court Gorgo would swig Cokes through a match.... Also Gorgo was a pretty heavy cigarette smoker. He had terrible sleeping habits made even worse by the reality of a tour."

Kramer won 22 of the first 26 matches and 42 of the first 50. Gonzales improved enough to win 15 of the remaining 32 but it was too late. Bobby Riggs, the tour promoter, told Gonzales that he was now "dead meat": Kramer would need a new challenger for the next tour. As compensation, however, Gonzales had made $75,000 in his losing efforts. Kramer also said that "his nature had changed completely. He became difficult and arrogant. Losing had changed him. When he got his next chance, he understood that you either win or you're out of a job." He was now "a loner," said Ted Schroeder, "and always the unhappiest man in town." ["The Lone Wolf", by S. L. Price, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2002]

emi-retirement

From 1951 to 1953 Gonzales was in semi-retirement. He bought the tennis shop at Exposition Park and ran that while playing in short tours and occasional professional tournaments throughout the world. In spite of his infrequent play (because first Riggs, then Kramer, as promoters of the pro tour, didn't want him as the headliner of their tours), he had nevertheless raised his game to a higher level than before and once again was winning most of his matches. Precise records of this time are difficult to locate but Gonzales asserts in his autobiography that after the decisive loss to Kramer in their 1949-1950 tour he then beat his old antagonist 11 times in their next 16 matches.

In the Southern Hemisphere summer of 1950-1951 Gonzales toured Australia and New Zealand with Dinny Pails, Frank Parker, and Don Budge. In December 1950 Pails won the short tour in New Zealand but in January and February 1951 Gonzales won a second and longer tour in Australia. Though Gonzales also won Wembley (where Kramer was not entered) in the fall of 1951, it is probable that both Kramer and Segura were marginally better players that year. In 1952, however, Gonzales reached the top level of the pros. In 1952 he entered 5 tournaments and captured 4: the "Philadelphia Inquirer" Masters tournament, where he beat both Segura and Kramer twice in a double round-robin event ; Scarborough, where he defeated Budge and Segura; Wembley, by again beating Segura and Kramer; Berlin, where Segura and Budge lost again to the American; he was also a finalist in the United States Professional Championships ("U.S. Pro") against Segura. In all, Gonzales beat Segura 5 matches out of 6 and Kramer three times in three matches. This was the first year that "Big Pancho" (Gonzales) dominated "Little Pancho" (Segura) in their head-to-head matches, and thereafter his superiority over Segura never wavered through their long careers.

Although the Professional Lawn Tennis Association issued rankings at the end of 1952 in which they called Segura the World Pro No. 1, with Gonzales 2nd, the PLTA rankings were notoriously quirky — the year before, for instance, when Kramer had beaten Segura 64 matches to 28 (or 58-27 according to Kramer) in their championship tour, they had nevertheless ranked Segura as the World No. 1 player. A strong case can therefore be made that Gonzales was actually the World Pro No. 1 player for 1952 or, at the least, shared that position with Segura.

At a professional event in 1951 the forehand drives of a number of players were electronically measured. Kramer was particularly known for his fine forehand, but Gonzales was recorded as hitting the fastest one, 112.88 mph, followed by Kramer at 107.8 and Welby Van Horn at 104. Since it was generally assumed at the time that Pancho Segura's two-handed forehand was the hardest in tennis, it is possible that he was not present at that event. ["The History of Professional Tennis", Joe McCauley, page 57]

In 1953 Gonzales, drawn aside from the big pro tour by Kramer (by now also a promoter), featuring Frank Sedgman, a 7-time Grand Slam singles winner, Pancho Segura, Ken McGregor (the 1952 Australian Open champion) and ... Kramer himself, regressed because he hasn't met a very great player for 12 months between Wembley 1952 and Wembley 1953. Therefore in Wembley and two days after in Paris, Pancho was severely crushed by Sedgman, the future winner of these tournaments.

In late 1953, Kramer, then a temporarily retired player (due to his back troubles), signed Gonzales (a 7-year contract) to play in a 1954 USA tour featuring also Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman and Donald Budge (the latter being replaced in March 1954 by Carl Earn for the last weeks of the tour). In the subsequent matches Gonzales beat Segura 30-21 and Sedgman by the same score (Budge beat Gonzales only once in Los Angeles). After this tour Gonzales won the U.S. Pro where all the best, except Pails, were present. Then the American played in a Far East tour (September-October 1954) very slightly dominated by Segura where Kramer made his come-back in singles after a 14-month retirement. Then Gonzales had a new success : he swept an Australian tour in November-December 1954 by beating Sedgman, 16 matches to 9, McGregor 15-0, and Segura, 4–2. Even though Pancho was beaten by Pails in the last competition of the year, the Australian Pro, Gonzales had clearly established himself as the top player in the world in 1954.

Dominance

Gonzales was now the dominant player in the men's game for about the next eight years, beating such tennis greats as Sedgman, Tony Trabert, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Mal Anderson, and Ashley Cooper on a regular basis. Forty years after his matches with Gonzales, Trabert told interviewer Joe McCauley "that Gonzales' serve was the telling factor on their tour — it was so good that it earned him many cheap points. Trabert felt that, while he had the better groundstrokes, he could not match Pancho's big, fluent service." ["The History of Professional Tennis", Joe McCauley ]

In that period, Gonzales won the United States Professional Championship eight times and the Wembley professional title in London four times, plus beating, in head-to-head tours, all of the best amateurs who turned pro, which included every Wimbledon champion for 10 years in a row. During this time Gonzales was known for his fiery will to win, his cannonball serve, and his all-conquering net game, a combination so potent that the rules on the professional tour were briefly changed in the 1950s to prohibit him from advancing to the net immediately after serving. Under the new rules, the returned serve had to bounce before the server could make his own first shot, thereby keeping Gonzales from playing his usual serve-and-volley game. He won even so, and the rules were changed back. So great was his ability to raise his game to the highest possible level, particularly in the fifth set of long matches, that Allen Fox has said that he never once saw Gonzales lose service when serving for the set or the match.

Trabert and Rosewall

In late 1955 and early 1956 Gonzales beat the athletic Tony Trabert by 74 matches to 27, a series made more compelling by the fact that the two players disliked each other intensely. At the end of 1956 Kramer signed Ken Rosewall to play another long series against Gonzales. In early 1957 Gonzales flew to Australia for the first 10 matches against Rosewall in his native country. Gonzales had developed a "half-dollar"-size cyst on the palm on his right hand and there was speculation in the newspapers that his tennis career might be over. Kramer's personal physician began to treat it with injections, and it gradually began to shrink. It was still painful, however, when Gonzales beat Rosewall in their initial match and eventually won their brief Australian tour 7 matches to 3, with Rosewall beating Gonzales in a tournament whose results did not count towards the series total. By the time the tour opened in New York in late February the cyst had shrunk considerably and Gonzales went on to beat Rosewall by a final score of 50 matches to 26.

Kramer has written that he was so worried that Rosewall would offer no competition to Gonzales and would thereby destroy the financial success of the tour that, for the only time in his career as a player or promoter, he asked Gonzales while in Australia to "carry" Rosewall in return for having his share of the gross receipts raised from 20 percent to 25 percent. Gonzales reluctantly agreed. After 4 matches, with Gonzales ahead 3 to 1, Gonzales came to Kramer to say that "I can't play when I'm thinking about trying to carry the kid. I can't concentrate. It just bothers me too much." By this time, however, it was apparent that Rosewall would be fully competitive with Gonzales, so Kramer told Gonzales to return to his normal game — and that he could keep his additional 5 percent.

Later that year Gonzales sued in California superior court to have his 7-year contract with Kramer declared invalid. As proof of his claim, Gonzales cited being paid 25 percent of the gate instead of the stipulated 20 percent. Judge Leon T. David found Gonzales's reasoning implausible and ruled in favor of Kramer. Gonzales remained bound to Kramer by contract until 1960." [All information about the Australian tour with Rosewall is from "The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis", pages 225-228]

Hoad

The most difficult challenge that Gonzales faced during those years came from Lew Hoad, the very powerful young Australian who had won five Grand Slam titles as an amateur. In the 1958 tour, Gonzales and Hoad played head-to-head 87 times. Hoad won 18 of the first 27 matches and it appeared that he was about to displace Gonzales as the best in the world. Gonzales, however, revamped and improved his backhand during the course of these first matches, just as Bill Tilden had had to do in 1920 in order to become the best in the world, and then won 42 of the next 60 matches to maintain his superiority by a margin of 51 to 36.

Much of Gonzales's competitive fire during these years derived from the anger he felt at being paid much less than the players he was regularly beating. In 1955, for instance, he was paid $15,000 while his touring opponent, the recently turned professional Tony Trabert, had a contract for $80,000. He had an often bitter adversarial relationship with most of the other players and generally travelled and lived by himself, showing up only in time to play his match, then moving on alone to the next town. Gonzales and Jack Kramer, the long-time promoter of the tour, were also bitter enemies dating to the days when Kramer had first beaten the youthful Gonzales on his initial tour. Now they fought incessantly about money, while Kramer openly rooted for the other players to beat Gonzales. As much as he disliked Gonzales, however, Kramer knew that Gonzales was the star attraction of the touring professionals and that without him there would be no tour at all.

Regarding the tour, Kramer writes that "even though [Gonzales] was usually the top name, he would almost never help promote. The players could have tolerated his personal disagreeableness, but this refusal to help the group irritated them the most. Frankly, the majority disliked Gonzales intensely. Sedgman almost came to blows with Gonzales once. Trabert and Gorgo hated each other. The only player he ever tried to get along with was Lew Hoad."

Trabert also told McCauley in their interview that "I appreciated his tennis ability but I never came to respect him as a person. Too often I had witnessed him treat people badly without a cause. He was a loner, sullen most of the time, with a big chip on his shoulder and he rarely associated with us on the road. Instead he'd appear at the appointed hour for his match, then vanish back into the night without saying a word to anyone. We'd all stay around giving autographs to the fans before moving on to the next city. Not Pancho. But on court he was totally professional as well as a fantastic player." ["The History of Professional Tennis", Joe McCauley ] In a 2005 interview, Ted Schroeder commented on Gonzales' intense demeanor both on and off the court, "We hardly ever spoke a civil word to one another, yet we were friends. He was a very prideful man, not proud, prideful. When you understood that, you understood him. [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051018/news_lz1s18pancho.html Legend ignored? | The San Diego Union-Tribune ] ]

Life on the tour was not easy. "One night," Gonzales recalled later, "I sprained an ankle badly. The next night in another town I was hurting. I told Jack I couldn't play. He said to me, 'Kid, we always play.' Jack had a doctor shoot me up with novocaine, and we played. That's just the way it was. The size of the crowd didn't matter. They'd paid to see us play." ["The History of Professional Tennis", Joe McCauley ]

The rigors were not only physical ones. In the 1963 United States Professional Championship, which were held that year at the hallowed Forest Hills courts, Gonzales both dismayed and infuriated his colleagues by being the only player who was paid for his participation. Having learned by bitter experience about the exigencies of the pro tour, Gonzales had demanded, and received, $5,000 in advance for his appearance in the tournament. An out-of-shape, semi-retired Gonzales was beaten in the first round. Ken Rosewall eventually beat Rod Laver in the finals but neither of them collected a penny: the promoter had failed to meet his costs and couldn't pay any of the players.

Open tennis

Most of Gonzales's career as a professional fell before the start of the Open era of tennis in 1968, and he was therefore ineligible to compete at the Grand Slam events between 1949 (when he turned pro) and 1967. As has been observed about other great players such as Rod Laver, Gonzales almost certainly would have won a number of additional Grand Slam titles had he been permitted to compete in those tournaments during that 18-year period. Jack Kramer, for instance, has speculated in an article about the theoretical champions of Forest Hills and Wimbledon that Gonzales would have won an additional 11 titles in those two tournaments alone.

The first major Open tournament was the French Championships in May 1968, when Gonzales had just turned 40. In spite of the fact that he had been semi-retired for a number of years and that the tournament was held on slow clay courts that penalize serve-and-volley players, Gonzales beat the 1967 defending champion Roy Emerson in the quarterfinals. He then lost in the semi-finals to Rod Laver. He lost in the third round of Wimbledon but later beat the second-seeded Tony Roche in the fourth round of the United States Open before losing an epic match to Holland's Tom Okker.

One of the greatest matches ever played

In 1969, however, it was Gonzales's turn to prevail in the longest match ever played till that time, one so long and arduous that it resulted in the advent of tie break scoring. As a 41-year-old at Wimbledon, Gonzales met the fine young amateur Charlie Pasarell, a Puerto Rican younger than Gozales by 16 years who revered his opponent.

Pasarell won a titanic first set, 24-22, then with daylight fading, the 41-year-old Gonzalez argued that the match should be suspended. The referre didn't relent and thus the petulant Gonzalez virtually threw the second set, losing it 6-1. At the break, the referee agreed the players should stop. Gonzalez was booed as he walked off Centre Court.

The next day, the serves, the volleys and all the prowess that made Gonzales a fiery competitor surfaced with trademark vengeance. Pasarell, seeking to exploit Gonzalez's advanced years, tried to aim soft service returns at Gonzalez's feet and tire him with frequent lobs. Barked Gonzalez on a changeover, "Charlie, I know what you're doing -- and it's not working!" Gonzalez rebounded to win three straight sets, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9. In the fifth set, Gonzales won all seven match points that Pasarell had against him, twice coming back from 0-40 deficits, to walk off the court from the 5-hour, 12-minute epic. [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3604713]

The final score was an improbable 22-24, 1–6, 16-14, 6–3, 11-9. Gonzales went on to the fourth round of the championship, where he was beaten in four sets by Arthur Ashe. The match with Pasarell, however, is still remembered as one of the highlights in the history of tennis and has been called one of "The Ten Greatest Matches of the Open Era" in the November/December 2003 issue of "TENNIS" magazine. [ [http://www.tennisforum.com/archive/index.php/t-92349.html The 10 Greatest Matches of the Open Era [Archive - TennisForum ] ] But it was not this match alone which gave Gonzales the reputation, among the top players, of being the greatest long-match player in the history of the game.

Final professional years

Roy Emerson, the fine Australian player who won a dozen Grand Slam titles during the 1960s as an amateur when most of the best players in the world were professionals, turned pro in 1968 at the age of 32, having won the French Open the year before. Gonzales, 8 years older, immediately beat him in the quarter-finals of the French championships. In the following years, Gonzales beat Emerson another 11 times, apparently losing very few matches to him. In the Champions Classic of 1970 in Miami, Florida, however, Emerson did beat Gonzales in straight sets, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2. ["World of Tennis Yearbook 1971", by John Barrett, page 142]

Another great Australian player was Ken Rosewall, who won 8 Grand Slam titles during his long career, first as an amateur, then as a professional in the early years of Open tennis. Gonzales played 160 matches against Rosewall, winning 101 and losing 59.

In late 1969, Gonzales won the Howard Hughes Open in Las Vegas and the Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles, beating, among others, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Stan Smith (twice), Cliff Richie, and Arthur Ashe. He was the top American money-winner for 1969 with $46,288. If the touring professionals had been included in the United States rankings, it is likely he would have been ranked number 1 in the country, just as he had been two decades earlier in 1948 and 1949.

Gonzales continued to play in the occasional tournament in his 40s. He could also beat the clear number-one player in the world, Rod Laver, on an occasional basis. Their most famous meeting was a $10,000 winner-take-all match before 15,000 in Madison Square Garden in February 1970. Coming just after the Australian had completed a calendar-year sweep of the Grand Slams, the 41-year-old Gonzales beat Laver in five sets. He became the oldest player to have ever won a professional tournament, winning the Des Moines Open over 24-year-old Georges Goven when he was three months shy of his 44th birthday. In spite of the fact that he was still known as a serve-and-volley player, in 1971, when he was 43 and Jimmy Connors was 19, he beat the great young baseliner by playing him from the baseline at the Pacific Southwest Open. Around this time, Gonzalez relocated to Las Vegas, working as the tennis director at Caesars Palace.

Personal and family life

González's parents, Manuel Antonio González and Carmen Alire, migrated from the Mexican state of Chihuahua to the U.S. in the early 1900s. González was born in Los Angeles, the eldest of seven children. Kramer writes that "Gorgo was not the poor Mexican-American that people assumed. He didn't come from a wealthy family, but from a stable middle-class background, probably a lot like mine. He had a great mother and there was always a warm feeling of family loyalty. If anything, he might have been spoiled as a kid. It's a shame he suffered discrimination because of his Mexican heritage."

González had a long scar across his left cheek that, according to his autobiography, some members of the mass media of the 1940s attributed to his being a Mexican-American pachuco and hence involved in knife fights. This was one more slur that embittered González towards the media in general. The scar was actually the result of a prosaic street accident in 1935 when he was 7 years old: pushing a scooter too fast, he ran into a passing car and had his cheek gashed open by its door handle. He spent two weeks in the hospital as a result.

Gonzales was referred to as "Richard" by his friends and family. As the child of middle-class Hispanic parents, young Richard was well aware of the social prejudices of his day. He reportedly disliked the nickname "Pancho", as it was a common derogatory term used against Mexican Americans at the time. [ [http://www.hispaniconline.com/magazine/2006/November/ltn_frm/film_tv.html Hispanic Magazine.com - Nov 2006 - The Latin Forum ] ] In the Hispanic community, the nickname "Pancho" is traditionally only given to individuals whose given name is "Francisco".

Although his surname was properly spelled "González", during most of his playing career he was known as "Gonzales". It was only towards the end of his life that the proper spelling began to be used. Kramer, however, writes that one of González's wives, Madelyn Darrow, "decided to change his name. Madalyn discovered in the Castilian upper-crust society, the fancy Gonzales families spelled their name with a "z" at the end to differentiate from the "hoi polloi" (sic) Gonzales. So it was Gonzalez for a time, and even now you will occasionally see that spelling pop up. I don't think Pancho gave a damn one way or the other." ["The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis" (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9), page 201] However, that theory is unlikely, as Gonzalez is actually a much more common spelling of that name than Gonzales. In his ghost-written 1959 autobiography, "Gonzales" is used throughout.

Gonzales became a television commentator for ABC, a rare presence at tournaments. Described as an adequate but unmotivated commentator,Gonzalez would issue thoughtful comments - often magnanimous, occasionally harsh, always candid - on contemporary pros not unlike an old soldier who'd preferred dying in battle than merely fading away. [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/hispanicheritage2008/news/story?id=3604713]

For decades González had made $75,000 a year from an endorsement contract with Spalding for racquets and balls but was unable to get along with the company personnel. Finally, in 1981, after nearly 30 years, Spalding refused to renew the contract. He had also been the tennis director and tournament director at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip for 16 years, another lucrative job. In 1985 he was fired after refusing to give private lessons to the wife of his boss. ["The Lone Wolf", by S. L. Price, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2002] As S. L. Price wrote about González in a 2002 Sports Illustrated article, "There was no more perfect match than Pancho and Vegas: both dark and disreputable, both hard and mean and impossible to ignore."

González married and divorced six times and had seven children: he wed his childhood sweetheart, Henrietta Pedrin, on March 23, 1948; they had 3 children. He married actress (and Miss Rheingold of 1958) Madelyn Darrow twice; they had 3 children, including twin girls. He married his dental hygenist, Betty, in Beverly Hills and had one daughter. His last wife, Rita, is the sister of Andre Agassi. According to Price's article, Rita's father, Mike Agassi, a 1952 Olympian on the Iranian boxing team who had become a successful casino greeter in Las Vegas, hated Gonzáles so much that he considered having him killed. Gonzáles had coached the young Rita until she had rebelled against her father's 5,000-balls-a-day-regimen and first moved in with, then married, on 31 March 1984, the much older Gonzáles. Years before, Mike Agassi, already a tennis fanatic, had once served as a linesman for one of Gonzáles's professional matches in Chicago. Gonzáles had upbraided Agassi so severely for perceived miscalls that Agassi had walked away and gone to sit in the stands.

Kramer says that "Gonzales never seemed to get along with his various wives, although this never stopped him from getting married.... Segura once said, 'You know, the nicest thing Gorgo ever says to his wives is "Shut up." González died in penury and almost friendless, estranged from his ex-wives and children except for Rita and their son, Skylar, and daughter, Jeanna Lynn. Andre Agassi paid for his funeral.

Place among the all-time great tennis players

For about 35 years from around 1920 to 1955, Bill Tilden was generally considered the greatest player of all time. From the mid-1950s to about 1970, many people thought that Gonzales had claimed that title. Since then, champions of the Open era such as Rod Laver, Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer have been considered by many of their contemporaries to be greater players than either Tilden or Gonzales.

Some people connected with the game consider Gonzales to be the best male player in tennis history, primarily because he was the World No. 1 tennis player for probably 8 years — the status of a few of the earlier years is still unclear. He was possibly the No.1 in 1952, but then was probably the World No. 1 for 7 consecutive years, 1954 through 1960. In the article World number one male tennis player rankings Bill Tilden with Rod Laver are the next closest to Gonzales with 7 No. 1 ratings, followed by Pete Sampras and Ken Rosewall with 6 each. Pancho Segura, who played, and frequently beat, all of the great players from the 1930s through the 1960s has said that he believes that Gonzales was the best player of all time. Other tennis greats such as Lew Hoad, and Allen Fox have agreed with this assessment. In a 1972 article about an imaginary tournament between the all-time greats, Gene Scott had the fourth-seeded Gonzales upsetting Bill Tilden in the semi-finals and then using his serve to destroy Rod Laver in the finals.

Bud Collins, the editor of the massive Total Tennis, The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia, is guarded. He writes on page 673 that Gonzales was "probably as good as anyone who ever played the game, if not better." On page 693, however, he writes that Rod Laver would "be known as possibly the greatest player ever." And on page 749 he calls Bill Tilden "perhaps the greatest player of them all."

In 2005 a tennis historian who visited the International Tennis Hall of Fame interviewed several great Australian players who had toured against Gonzales. Who, they were asked, was the best player they had ever played against? [Interviews by tennis historian Rich Hillway in 2005 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.]

Mal Anderson named Gonzales, who "was very difficult since if you did get ahead, he had a way to upset you, and he could exploit your weaknesses fast. Though over the hill, he beat Rod [Laver] until Rod lifted his game." He added, "Lew Hoad, in his day was scary, though Gonzales was best day in and day out." Ashley Cooper also named Gonzales, whom "I never beat on the tour. But I did beat him a couple of times on clay where his serve wasn’t as good." Gonzales's frequent opponent Frank Sedgman said, "I played against probably the greatest of all time, Jack Kramer. He could put his serve on a dime and had a great first volley. The second best was Gonzales. I played him a lot — a great competitor — a great athlete.”

Jack Kramer, on the other hand, who became a world-class player in 1940 and then beat Gonzales badly in the latter's first year as a professional, has stated that he believes that although Gonzales was better than either Laver or Sampras he was not as good as either Ellsworth Vines or Don Budge. Kramer, who had a long and frequently bitter relationship with Gonzales, rates him only as one of the four players who are second to Budge and Vines in his estimation. [In his 1979 autobiography Kramer considered the best ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.] Kramer also, perhaps surprisingly, writes that Bobby Riggs would have beaten Gonzales on a regular basis.

Early in 1986 Inside Tennis, a magazine edited in Northern California, devoted parts of four issues to a lengthy article called "Tournament of the Century", an imaginary tournament to determine the greatest of all time. They asked 37 tennis notables such as Kramer, Budge, Perry, and Riggs and observers such as Bud Collins [The 37 were: Vijay Amritraj, Arthur Ashe, Lennart Bergelin (Björn Borg's coach), Nick Bollettieri, Norm Brooks, Don Budge, Nick Carter, Bud Collins, Allison Danzig, Donald Dell, Cliff Drysdale, Allan Fox, John Gardiner, Dick Gould, Slew Hester, Bill Jacobsen, Alan King, Jack Kramer, Art Larsen, Rod Laver, Bob Lutz, Barry MacKay, Marty Mulligan. Yannick Noah, Manuel Orantes, Charlie Pasarell, Fred Perry, Whitney Reed, Bobby Riggs, Vic Seixas, Stan Smith, Bill Talbert, Eliot Teltscher, Ted Tinling, Tony Trabert, Dennis van der Meer, Erik van Dillen.] to list the 10 greatest players in order.

Twenty-five players in all were named by the 37 experts in their lists of the 10 best. The magazine then ranked them in descending order by total number of points assigned. The top eight players in overall points, with their number of first-place votes, were: Rod Laver (9), John McEnroe (3), Don Budge (4), Jack Kramer (5), Björn Borg (6), Pancho Gonzales (1), Bill Tilden (6), and Lew Hoad (1). Gonzales was ranked the sixth-best player, with only Allan Fox casting a vote for him as the greatest of all time.

Gonzales's views of other players as of 1995

*Pete Sampras: "I rate him potentially with anybody, including Lew Hoad."
*Andre Agassi: "He was a natural but when he turned pro at 15, he couldn't cover the court."
*Björn Borg: "He was tough. I played him when I was 42 and he was 18... and beat him 6–1, 6–1. My best game against his best game, he would be one of the toughest. One of the all-time greats." Note that either Gonzales's memory was faulty or "The Times" had a typographical error: Borg, who was born in 1956, would have been 14 when Gonzales was 42; conversely, Gonzales would have been 46 when Borg was 18.
*Jimmy Connors: "My wide serve would've been effective against his two-handed return."
*John McEnroe: "He's right up there behind Hoad, except that he didn't hit the ball quite as hard."
*Rod Laver: "At his best, I think I might've had too much court coverage for him. He was a great athlete, but he didn't have the thinking part."
*Ken Rosewall: "With the exception of me and Frank Sedgman, he could handle everybody else... but he had a forehand weakness and a serve weakness."
*Lew Hoad: "He was the only guy who, if I was playing my best tennis, could still beat me. I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine."
*Don Budge: "Even now, I think he had the best backhand ever developed... His ball off the backhand was the heaviest ball I can remember.":All quotations are from a "New York Times" article of 12 March 1995. Gonzales died four months later of cancer in Las Vegas.Gonzales was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, Rhode Island in 1968.

Notes

Most significant (and all the other known) results

Grand Slam Tournament wins:
*United States Championships:
**Men's Singles champion - 1948, 1949
*Wimbledon:
**Men's Doubles champion - 1949
*French Championships:
**Men's Doubles champion - 1949

Professional World Singles Tournament wins:
*Wembley, England
**Singles champion - 1950, 1951, 1952, 1956,
**Singles runner-up - 1953

*United States Professional Championship "(also called World Professional Championship when held at Cleveland)"
**Singles champion - 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961
**Singles runner-up - 1951, 1952, 1964

*U. S. Professional Indoor Championship
**Singles champion - 1964 "(held in White Plains, N. Y that year)"

*French Professional Championship
**Singles runner-up - 1953, 1956, 1961

*World Professional Championship "(held at Cleveland)"
**Singles champion - 1964 "

"(in fact Jack March promoted a tournament in Cleveland (at different venues) from 1950 through 1964 that he called at the time the World Professional Championship : this tournament sort of merged with the United States Professional Championship (U.S. Pro) in 1950 and from 1952 through 1962. Therefore the 1951, 1963 and 1964 Cleveland tournaments were not the U.S. Pro tournaments (held respectively at Forest Hills, Forest Hills again and Longwood Cricket Club outside Boston)"

*BBC2 TV event, Wembley
**Singles champion - 1964, 1966

*Howard Hughes Open
**Singles champion - 1969 (over Arthur Ashe), 1970 (over Rod Laver)

*United States Professional Doubles Championship
**Doubles champion - 1953, 1954, 1957, 1958, 1969

Professional Tour Results:

Gonzales won 7 major pro tours (see Tennis male players statistics) in 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961, more than anyone else before the open era.

*1949-1950 — Beginning 25 October 1949 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jack Kramer beat Gonzales 96 matches to 27, the last match being on 21 May 1950 in Dayton, Ohio.
*1950 — In March, at the "Philadelphia Pro Championships", beat Kramer in finals, 7–5, 6–3, 6–4. Won his first major Pro title at Wembley, England, in October, beating Welby Van Horn in the finals, 6–3, 6–3, 6–2. At the end of 1950 toured New Zealand briefly with Dinny Pails, Frank Parker, and Don Budge. Pails beat Gonzales 4 matches to 3. Results against the others are unknown.
*1951 — In early 1951 the New Zealand tour continued into Australia. Gonzales had 36 wins, Pails 27, Parker 14, and Budge 9. In his autobiography Gonzales says that he was 45-7 against Pails and Parker in Australia and New Zealand but he is not precise about the year or years. In the "Philadelphia Round Robin" Kramer was 5–0, Gonzales 4–1, Segura 3–2, Kovacs 2–3, Van Horn 1–4, and Riggs 0–5. In the United States Pro Championships at Forest Hills on July 4 Segura defeated Gonzales in the finals 6–3, 6–4, 6–2. In the Wembley, England, championships, Gonzales defeated Segura in the finals 6–2, 6–2, 2–6, 6–4. In September, in the "German International Round Robin" in Berlin, Gonzales finished third in an 8-man field behind Segura and the American Carl Earn (who won his first pro tournaments in 1946).
*1952 — There was no headline tour. Gonzales, however, played a minor one, touring with Frank Parker, Bill Tilden, and George Lyttleton-Rogers, a good Irish player in the 20s-30s. The only known result is when Gonzales beat Tilden, aged 59, 6–1, 6–2. In the "Philadelphia Round Robin" Gonzales beat Kramer and finished first, with Segura second. In June, the "U.S. Pro. Championship" was combined with the "World Pro. Championship" in Lakewood, Ohio, and Segura beat Gonzales in the final 3–6, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, 6–0. Gonzales had an upset stomach throughout the match. In July Gonzales won the "Slazenger Professional Championship" in Scarborough, England, by beating Segura 15-13, 6–3, 6–3. Also in England, he won the Wembley championship for the second year in a row, coming back to beat Kramer in a bitterly fought battle 3–6, 3–6, 6–2, 6–4, 7–5. Kramer cried in the locker room afterwards. Finally, in the "Berlin Pro. Championship" late in the year Gonzales beat Segura in the semifinals and Budge in the finals, 8–6, 7–5.
*1953 — Gonzales played relatively little. He won the U.S. Professional Championship for the first of 8 times, defeating Budge 4–6, 6–4, 7–5, 6–2 in the final, but the field was very weak, without Kramer, Segura, or Sedgman. Sedgman beat him in the finals at Wembley, 6–1, 6–2, 6–2 and also in the French Professional Championship, 6–1, 6–3. Gonzales won two minor titles, the California State Pro against Budge, 5–7, 6–3, 6–4, and the Canadian Pro Championship at Quebec City, against Riggs, 6–0, 6–4, 6–4.
*1954 - Sources are unclear and contradictory about Gonzales's record in late 1953 and all of 1954. One source says that he played a short Australian tour in 1953, beating Sedgman 15 matches to 9, and beating McGregor 15-0. Since these same figures are also repeated for 1954, in which it is also said that Gonzales beat Sedgman 30-21 and Pancho Segura 30-21 in a series of round-robin matches, it is difficult to establish the precise record, but it is likely that they represent matches in 1954. It is also said that Gonzales beat Dinny Pails 47-7 in 1954. Kramer says in his autobiography that the American tour was a "mini-tournament" format between Gonzales, Sedgman, Segura, and Budge. He reports that Gonzales beat Sedgman 30-20 and Segura by the same score, with Budge winning only a few times. In any case, it is clear that Gonzales was the dominant player in the world in 1954.
*1955-1956 - Gonzales beat Tony Trabert 74-27
*1957 - Gonzales beat Ken Rosewall 50-26
*1958 - Gonzales beat Lew Hoad 51-36
*1959 - Gonzales beat Mal Anderson, Ashley Cooper, and Hoad in round-robin matches
*1959-1960 - Gonzales beat Alex Olmedo, Segura, and Rosewall in round-robin matches
*1961 - Gonzales was the major winner in a tour that included Butch Buchholz, Barry MacKay, Andres Gimeno, Hoad, Olmedo, Sedgman, Trabert, and Cooper.

Davis Cup:
*Member of the U.S. Davis Cup winning team in 1949 (won two singles rubbers in the final against Australia).

91 singles titles (at least) :

"Amateur career"

1947 : career debut but no singles title

1948 : Tampa "January 9", Orlando "January 25", California State - Berkeley "May ?", Western Championships-Indianapolis "July 11", U.S. Clay - River Forest "July 18", Orange, Southampton (U.S.) "August", U.S. Nationals - Forest Hills "September 19" (8 titles)

1949 : La Jolla "February 9", Los Angeles Metropolitan "February 20", U.S. Indoor - New York "March 26", Ojai valley "April 30", U.S. Clay - River Forest "July 17", Philadelphia "August 7 ?", Newport (U.S.) "August 14", U.S. Nationals - Forest Hills "September 5", Pacific Southwest - Los Angeles "September 18" (9 titles)

"Pro career"

1950 : Philadelphia "March 26", London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley "September 30" (2 titles)

1951 : London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley "September 28" (1 title)

1952 : Philadelphia "March 29", Scarborough "August 2", Berlin Rot Weiss Club "August 31", London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley "September 28" (4 titles)

1953 : U.S. Pro - Lakewood "June 20", California State Pro - Beverly Hills "August 16", Canadian Pro - Quebec City "September 20" (3 titles)

1954 : New York MSG Pro (4-man tournament) "January 4", White Plains Pro 4-man tournament) "January 30", Boston Pro Indoors (4-man tournament) "February", U.S. Pro - Cleveland "May 2 (or 3)", U.S. Pro hardcourt - Los Angeles "June 13" (5 titles)

1955 : U.S. Pro - Cleveland "April 2", Scarborough "July 30", Ostend "August 23", U.S. Pro hardcourt - Los Angeles "November 14" (4 titles)

1956 : U.S. Pro - Cleveland "April 6", Argentina Pro - Buenos Aires (4-man tournament) "July 3", Chicago Pro (4-man tournament) "July 16", Tournament of Champions - Los Angeles (6-man round robin tournament) "August 5", Trophy of Champions - Milan "September 20", London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley "September 29" (6 titles)

1957 : U.S. Pro - Cleveland "April 12", Bermuda Pro - Hamilton (4-man tournament) "April 21", San Francisco Pro Indoors - Cow Palace "May 24", Tournament of Champions - Forest Hills (6-man round robin tournament) "July 27", Masters Round Robin - Los Angeles (7-man round robin tournament) "August 3" (5 titles)

1958 : U.S. Pro - Cleveland "May 5", Salt Lake City (4-man and 1-day tournament) "May 26", Boise (4-man and 1-day tournament) "May 27", Spokane (4-man and 1-day tournament) "May 28", Vancouver (4-man and 1-day tournament) "May 30", Bakersfield (Cal.) (4-man tournament) "June 2", Palo Alto (4-man tournament) "June 3", Tournament of Champions - Forest Hills (7-man round robin tournament) "June 24" (8 titles)

1959 : New South Wales Pro - Sydney "February 9", U.S. Pro - Cleveland "April 26", Masters Round Robin - Los Angeles "June 14", O'Keefe Pro - Toronto "June 21", New South Wales Pro - Sydney (2nd edition) "December 13" (5 titles)

1960 : Tuscaloosa "May 16" (1 title)

1961 : U.S. Pro - Cleveland "May 3", Geneva "August 20", Scandinavian Pro Indoor - Copenhagen "October 2", Milano "October 7", Austrian Pro Indoor - Vienna "October 20" (5 titles)

1962 : Gonzales's retirement

1963 : Gonzales's return to competition but no title

1964 : Pepsi Cola World Pro - Cleveland "May 16", U.S. Pro Indoor - White Plains "May 31", Golden Racquet Pro - Wembley (4-man tournament : "not to be confused with the traditional London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley held in autumn") "July 21", Knokke-le-Zoute (4-man tournament) "July 24", Florida Pro - Hollywood (Fla) "December 13" (5 titles)

1965 : New South Wales Pro - Sydney "January 23", Florida Pro - Orlando "April 11", CBS TV Pro Dallas "May", Seafirst - Greater Seattle Pro Champs "June 6" (4 titles)

1966 : Florida Pro - Hollywood (Fla) "February 6", BBC2 Trophy - Wembley (4-man tournament : "not to be confused with the traditional London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley held in autumn") "March 31", Birmingham (Ala.) Pro Classic "September 18", Hollywood (Fla) Pro Challenge Cup "December 4" (4 titles)

1967 : Birmingham (Ala.) Pro Classic "May 7" (1 title)

"Open career"

1968 : NTL Los Angeles Champs (4-man tournament) "August", NTL Midland Champs (6-man tournament) "October 1" (2 titles)

1969 : Pacific Southwest Open - Los Angeles "September 28", Howard Hughes Open - Las Vegas "October 12" (2 titles)

1970 : Howard Hughes Open - Las Vegas WCT "May 17 (or 13 ?)" (1 title)

1971 : Southern California - Los Angeles "May 9", Pacific Southwest Open - Los Angeles "September 26", Kingston "December 16" (3 titles)

1972 : Des Moines "February 6", Southern California - Los Angeles "May 14", Kingston "December 14" (3 titles)

1973 : end of career with no singles title

"note : Gonzales would have won at La Jolla on June 1, 1959 but it isn't clear if it was a tournament or a pro tour match"

Sources : Sources: Michel Sutter, Vainqueurs Winners 1946-2003, Paris 2003; World Tennis Magazines; Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001;

10 pro tour wins (at least) :

- Australian Pro Tour "January-February 1951" : 1) Gonzales 36 wins - 6 losses ( 2) Dinny Pails 27-15, 3) Frank Parker 14-28, 4) Donald Budge 9-33)

- World Pro Tour "January 3 - May 1954" : Gonzales dominated Segura 30 matches to 21 (or 20), Sedgman 30 matches to 21 (or 20), and Budge (score unknown but Budge defeated Gonzales only once)

- Australian Pro Tour "November-December 1954" : 1) Gonzales ( 2) Sedgman or Segura, 4) McGregor)

- World Pro Tour "December 9, 1955 - June 3, 1956" : Gonzales defeated Trabert 74-27

- South African Tour "November-December 1956" : 1) Gonzales 9–4 ( 2) Sedgman 7–6, 3) Trabert 6–7, 4) Hartwig 4–9

- World Pro Tour "January 14-May 1957" : Gonzales defeated Rosewall 50-26

- World Pro Tour "January-April or May 1958" : Gonzales defeated Hoad 51-36

- World Pro Tour "February-May ? 1959" : 1) Gonzales 47-15 ( 2) Hoad 42-20, 3) Ashley Cooper 21-40, 4) Mal Anderson 13-48)

- World Pro Tour "January-May 1960" : 1) Gonzales 49-8 ( 2) Rosewall 32-25, 3) Segura 22-28, 4) Olmedo 11-44)

- World Pro Tour "December 30, 1960-April 1961" : there were 47 World Series Round Robin matches for the world championship among 6 players, followed by 28 head-to-head matches between the top 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 to determine the final champion; Rosewall, however, took several long vacations and played very little in the first half of the year; substitutions were permitted for injured players in the round robin : Gonzales-(Segura) 33-14, Andres Gimeno 27-20, Hoad-(Trabert, Cooper, Sedgman) 24-23, Barry MacKay 22-25, Olmedo 18-29, Butch Buchholz 16-31; #1 Gonzales then defeated #2 Gimeno 21-7, #3 Sedgman (who definitely replaced Hoad) defeated #4 MacKay 15-13

Sources : World Tennis Magazines; Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001;

ources

* "The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis" (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
* "The History of Professional Tennis" (2003), Joe McCauley
* "Man with a Racket, The Autobiography of Pancho Gonzales, as Told to Cy Rice" (1959)
* Rich Hillway, tennis historian http://www.coloradotennis.com/cta/website.asp?Dept=News&Sec=Features&Page=Rich%20Hillway
* "The Tennis Book" (1981), Edited by Michael Bartlett and Bob Gillen ISBN 0-87795-344-9
* "The Lone Wolf", by S. L. Price, Sports Illustrated, June 26, 2002
* "World of Tennis Yearbook 1971" (1971), by John Barrett, London

External links

* [http://www.tennisfame.com/famer.aspx?pgID=867&hof_id=121 International Tennis Hall of Fame profile]
*imdb name|id=0327555|name=Pancho González