Richard (Pancho) Gonzales, Possibly the Greatest of Them All
By Allen Fox, Ph.D. c 2013, all rights reserved
What can we learn from the career of Pancho Gonzales? Possibly that athleticism, fiery desire and iron will can overcome technical stroke deficiencies.
Pancho Gonzales was, if not the best player of all time, certainly one of the best. His career at the top lasted an incredible number of years. He won the US Championship at Forest Hills in 1948 at the age of 20. In that year he entered the world’s top 10 for the first time. In 1969, 21 years later, at the age of 41, he made the world’s top 10 (at #6) for the last time.
Pancho won the US Championship again in 1949 before turning professional in 1950. With Jack Kramer’s retirement, Gonzales became the best player in the world in 1954 and fended off all challengers on head to head and round-robin tours for the next ten years. On these tours he defeated Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Malcolm Anderson, Alex Olmedo, Ashley Cooper, Frank Sedgeman and Tony Trabert while also winning the US Professional Championship tournament eight times. He finally began to slip in the mid-sixties, relinquishing his number one position to Rod Laver, but remained a dangerous opponent for anyone in the world until the early 1970’s.
Although Pancho’s game was on the way down by his early thirties (most players peak out in their late twenties), his late results give us an idea of how great he must have been at his zenith. At the age of 43 he won his last Open tournament at Des Moines. In 1968 at the age of 40 he reached the quarter-finals of the US Open, defeating second-seeded Tony Roche (a finalist at Wimbledon). The next year he beat Charlie Pasarell (ranked #1 in the US in 1967) at Wimbledon in a record-breaking five-hour match played over two days, saving seven match points in the fifth set. That same year he beat John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe (6-0, 6-2, 6-4) at Las Vegas, the second most lucrative tournament of the year. In early 1970, at nearly 42 years of age, the old man beat the world’s number one, Rod Laver, in a $10,000 winner-take-all match at Madison Square Garden, to the delight of a crowd of 14,761.
Pancho was a great competitor. I consider him to be the greatest competitor that I ever saw play the game, though I never watched Jack Kramer or the players that came before Kramer like Tilden, Vines, Riggs, Perry, etc., so I can not compare them to Gonzales. But there was, in my opinion, nobody in the last forty-five years better at winning than Pancho, including the likes of McEnroe and Connors, who resembled him in temperament. Once Gonzales got an opponent down the outcome was assured. He was like an anaconda in that once he got his teeth into an opponent escape was virtually impossible. Although I am sure it must have happened from time to time, I never personally witnessed Gonzales lose his serve when he was serving for the set or the match. At the finish he took his time and he looked across the net with blazing eyes and ferocious resolve. Here his first serve went in with uncanny frequency. Like the other champions of his time, he followed it in to net where he was, with his incredible athletic ability, size and speed, able to reach all but the greatest passing shots. Pancho’s volley was flawless. His hands were soft and secure, much like McEnroe’s, and his nerves were steely calm under pressure. In the clutch Pancho simply did not miss.
Pancho was one of those rare individuals who could actually play better when he got mad. Lots of people think they can do this, but few actually can. When the ordinary mortal becomes angry his judgment clouds, his hands stiffen, his patience evaporates, and he loses. He may make some great shots and play streaks of inspired tennis, but these interludes are adulterated and ultimately undone by errors. This was not the case with Gonzales (nor was it the case with Connors or MacEnroe in their primes). Anger simply motivated Gonzales. It increased his adrenaline and made him more alert, quicker, stronger and more focused on winning than ever. He became meaner and more menacing. Compared to Gonzales, Connors and McEnroe were pussycats. Gonzales was much bigger, had a nasty-looking scar across one side of his face and, when riled, his eyes flashed, his expression darkened and you got the nasty feeling that he was about to hurt you. Pancho came from the rough part of town and was known to have gone into the stands after spectators that annoyed him. He was scary. And, to the consternation of his opponents, Gonzales was easily angered. His rival and friend over the years, Pancho Segura, pegged him right when he said of him, “Gonzales is very even-tempered. He is always mad.”
My first experience with Gonzales’ temper was in the late 1957 at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles where he was playing Lew Hoad on their head to head world tour. I was eighteen at the time and had gained free admission by agreeing to call a sideline. In the middle of the match I made a close call against Gonzales. With explosive violence he whacked a ball into the backstop near my head, glared at me and growled threateningly “Watch that fucking line better.” That straightened me right up. I don’t know whether I made a bad call on that ball or not, but you can be sure that I wasn’t about to call another ball against Gonzales unless I was dead certain I was right. Gonzales was nothing if not effective.
On the professional tour in the 1950’s and 1960’s Gonzales was a loner. He had the personality of a timber-wolf, and, unlike the other players who were generally sociable and enjoyed the each other’s company, Pancho kept to himself. He was a brooding, antagonistic and contrary individual, feuding with tennis associations, promoters, opponents and spectators alike. He was in trouble from the beginning of his career, having run afoul of Perry T. Jones, the czar of Southern California Tennis during the time Gonzales was an amateur. Perry Jones insisted that all junior players under his tutelage complete high school. Gonzales was more interested in racing cars and playing tennis and quit school anyway. Jones banned him from junior tournaments. But genius can not be denied and Gonzales, after sitting around for over a year, came of age, was able to escape Perry Jones by competing in the men’s division, winning the US Championships a couple of times and turning pro.
Pancho was a beautiful athlete. He was big (about 6’3”) but looked bigger. He had long arms and legs and moved with marvelous speed and grace. His reputation was as a huge server, but power was not how he really won. He was a “touch” player and won by reaching everything and rarely making mistakes. He had wonderful control and an instinct for keeping the ball in awkward positions for his opponent. If you watched him play at a distance you could have mistaken him for little Ken Rosewall because his movements were so quick and effortless. He had perfect balance, never seemed rushed, and changed directions like a cat.
As was typical of his era, Pancho served and volleyed. He relied on holding his own serve indefinitely while making his opponent work on every point to hold serve. Pancho had a powerful forehand which was dangerous on passing shots and a consistent slice backhand. The backhand passing shot was Pancho’s only weakness. Because he came under the ball he could, against a volleyer, only dink it crosscout, lob it, or hit it relatively hard up the line. Pancho returned serve very well with his backhand, keeping the ball very low and never missing it. The volleyer did not have to worry about getting passed on Pancho’s serve return, but he was surely going to have to hit a low volley. Soft as it was, this ball was very difficult to put away, particularly since Pancho ran like a gazelle. A wise opponent would hit this shot back deep to Pancho’s backhand and a little game of cat and mouse would ensue, with Pancho chipping, lobbing, running, and smacking the occasional down-the-line passing shot. Sometimes Pancho would come in on his serve return and try to pick his opponent’s volley off out of the air so there was never an opportunity to relax. If the opponent was sure-handed and quick he could hold serve relatively consistently, but it was physically demanding and mentally wearing. Meanwhile, Pancho kept a death-grip on his own serve. Eventually Pancho’s opponent would make a few mistakes, Pancho would knock off a couple of passing shots and it would be over.
Pancho did not get great just because he was a superior athlete. He liked to play and spent a great deal of time on the court. I first met Pancho when I was 17 years old (in 1956). As one of the better juniors in Southern California, I used to work out at Hillcrest Country Club where my good friend, Carl Earn, was the pro. Carl, who was in his mid-thirties at the time, had toured on the pro circuit with Don Budge and Welby Van Horn and still liked to play. He was a lively and funny character, and I used to practice with him often. One day Gonzales came by and Carl asked him if he wanted to play a set with me. “Yeh”, he said, and we went at it. I won the first few games because Pancho wasn’t warmed up (or really trying) and Carl started kidding him about losing to a junior. Pancho snarled, turned on the juice, and won the next six games. The interesting part was that Pancho Gonzales, the best player in the world, loved the game so much that he was happy, in his spare time, to get on the court with a junior. That would not happen much today.
Years later Pancho was as keen to play as ever. In 1967 I was working out at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to get ready for the Pacific Southwest tournament. In those days I was one of the better players in the United States and was capable of giving Pancho a tough match in practice (although in a tournament I could not have beaten him). Since I was the best player in town at the time, we played, at Pancho’s insistence, three out of five set matches every afternoon, with the loser paying for the balls. (As an indication of how much the game has changed, here was one of the best players in the world actually motivated by the price of a can of balls!) Our matches usually lasted over three hours and, to boot, the 38 year-old Gonzales had already played an hour or two in the morning.
Pancho was still a ferocious competitor but was starting to mellow just a little. As an example, in one of our matches I supplied a can of Spalding balls to start with. The first set went back and forth, and when I won it Pancho let out a roar, “These God Damn balls aren’t true,” and smacked all three of them over the fence. He claimed that they were unbalanced and did not fly straight and refused to play until we got a new can of Wilsons. The second set was particularly gruesome since Pancho was still stung from the loss of the first. He glowered, cursed and smacked the occasional ball into the fence, all the while playing better and better as he became madder and more vicious. He finally got the upper hand late in the set and as we changed sides he snarled, “How would you like to play a son of a bitch like me three out of five sets on CLAY?” I thought I detected a twinkle in his eye when he said it. For the first time I could remember Pancho actually seemed to be making subtle fun of himself.
Years earlier his nasty remarks were meant to have more sting, although he was such an idol to me that I was just happy he was talking to me at all. At one time I asked him where he got that long scar across his face. “From asking too many questions!” he replied, glaring and staring at me. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding but I shut up anyway. Another time we were practicing and I was giving him a closer match than he thought I should. I hit what I thought was a clever angle volley winner and he shouted at me, “You can’t break a fucking egg with your volley, just like Tony.” He was trying to insult me, but by Tony he meant Tony Trabert, who I thought was a great player, so I considered it to be a compliment.
Notwithstanding the occasional outburst, playing Pancho was fun. He didn’t hurt you too much on your own serve so you could usually get into the match. He relied more on consistency than power, more on wearing you down than blowing you out, so you were able to develop rhythm against him. If you didn’t miss many volleys you could hold serve with some regularity.
Breaking his serve was the problem. His height and fluid action allowed him to hit big, flat serves wide and ace you. His second serve was generally a heavy, deep kick, although he could slice wide to the forehand when he wanted. But Pancho beat you with his volley more than his serve. Instead of hitting the big first serve all the time he mixed it up with slices and kicks. This increased his percentages and kept you off balance. You had to always be alert for the big one and this made his spin serves more effective. His volley was so good that he didn’t have to ace you. Once he was established at net, passing or lobbing him was extremely difficult. Only the hardest hitters could get the ball out of his reach, and if Pancho reached the ball he could volley it anywhere.
How good was Pancho compared to the other tennis greats? I think it depends on his opponent’s style of play and the surface. He was certainly among the best I have ever seen. In 1971, at the age of 43 he beat 19-year-old Jimmy Connors (certainly several before Jimmy’s prime but many years after Pancho’s) in the finals of the Pacific Southwest Championship, and he killed a mature Ken Rosewall in a head to head tour. Pancho is the only player that I would have bet on against the great Borg on clay. Borg wore opponents down on clay but did not volley well, and if you did not come to net against Pancho, you could not exploit his lone weakness – the lack of a strong backhand passing shot. Borg would have had to run on the baseline with Pancho, and Pancho’s sliced backhand was very efficient and physically easy to hit. Borg’s topspin shots, in contrast, took a lot of effort. Pancho was also fast, relentless and could run with anybody. Ultimately, Pancho could have picked his spots and come to net to finish Borg. On the other hand, Pancho would have had a lot of trouble, on a fast court, against McEnroe or Sampras, both of whom had great volleys and could have attacked Pancho’s backhand at net behind their serves, and both of whom could hit passing shots hard enough to pass Pancho.
In his later years Pancho mellowed considerably, becoming almost gentle. (In case you can’t tell by the way I have talked about him, I idolized, loved and profoundly respected the man.) Like most of the great players, he was very intelligent, direct and honest. If he told you something it was certainly true. At one time I asked him if he would be willing to take a personality test that I was administering as a research project to see how great players compared, mentally, to ordinary people. Pancho said he didn’t have time to take it on the spot, but that he would take the test back to Las Vegas, fill it out there, and send it to me. The test required over and hour to complete and, true to his word, Pancho took the time to fill it out and return it to me.
In his 60’s he married Rita Agassi, Andre Agassi’s sister, and she became Pancho’s sixth wife. (Obviously a younger Pancho was not an ideal marriage partner. Pancho Segura joked that the nicest thing Gonzalez ever said to his wife was, “Shut up!”) With Rita he had a son, Skyler, who was the apple of his aging eye. Every time I saw him, in those later years, he told me stories about what a talented tennis player young Skyler was. On one occasion I could not resist teasing him and said, “Of course Skyler is a great athlete. He has Andre Agassi’s genes.” Pancho laughed. He was, by now, a far wiser and gentler old soul than the wolf I had known those many years ago. It was a horrible shame that he couldn’t have lived longer to enjoy the fruits of his genius and see Skyler grow up.
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23 Responses to “Richard (Pancho) Gonzales, Possibly the Greatest of Them All”Leave Comment
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Great life story and informative game ideas.
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Allen,
I don’t know if this is the appropriate place to tell this Gonzales story but I will give it a shot. About my 3rd year in coming to Pepperdine from my New England town there was an indoor tourney in LA called the Mayco tournament. It was played on two indoor back to back courts and was poorly attended on the weekdays. Several of us Pepperdine boys (Ogiela and Hale and maybe Mitchell) cut class to go watch. The match we saw was a 44 year old, half white headed Pancho Gonzales against Ian Tiriac who was in his prime. This was about 1972 or 73 and I think Tiriac may have been top 20. We were seated at the net in one of the first several rows. There was hardly anyone else there.
Tiriac was up a set and 4-2 with Gonzales serving. He disagreed with the call and came to the net post and was spending some time arguing with the umpire. Gonzales was fidgeting. Finally Gonzales in a rough raspy voice said: “Lets play Tiriac”. Tiriac looked at him and said, “you want to play?” and then sat down at the table next to the umpire, crossed his legs, poured himself some water, and continued his discussion with the umpire. As this was going on Gonzales started walking small circles with his head down except for some glances at Tiriac. Finally Gonzales screamed at Tiriac, “Play Tiriac”. I vividly remember seeing the veins bulge along Gonzales neck as he screamed. I remember so well the darts, the fire, the intensity, the bullets coming out of his eyes. They looked like dark brown lasers.
Tiriac returned to the court to return serve. Gonzales down 15-30 ripped two clean aces on the first two points. His serve gained many mph after the break. Gonzales went on to win 6-2 in the third.
I have often marveled at how a man at this age, way past his prime, playing in an empty house in front of just a handful of kids, and who had been number one in the world nearly a quarter of a century earlier could still have such a competitive fire. To me it was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Later in my life I had the opportunity to coach tennis at Indiana University while the great Bobby Knight coached basketball there. When Knight came off the court at half time when things weren’t going as he wanted, he had the exact same look in the eyes that Gonzales had. Some great stuff.
That is one of the reasons I always picked Gonzales as the #2 all time great player behind Laver.
Years later I was sitting next to Glen Basset, the Great UCLA coach at a banquet. I asked him: you and Gonzales came up together as kids didn’t you? Tell me about Gonzales. His reply was, “Gonzalez was the first of the warriors.
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Great story about Gonzales, Ken. It sounds like his style – he was one of the few people that could play better when angry.
Tiriac, on the other hand, was a low-life in my opinion. He was unfair, a cheater, which was unusual in those days when fairness and sportsmanship were the norm.
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Tilden is too often left out of the top echelon. He had a complete game, won on every surface, was the best player in the world for seven years, and his longevity is comparable to that of Gonzalez or Rosewall. I think he should rightfully be placed ahead of Gonzalez (who did not have Tilden’s results on clay) and Borg (who didn’t have Tilden’s variety of shots nor his longevity), perhaps second only to Laver.
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I totally agree, Luisa. Gene Mako told me that Tilden had the second best backhand he’d ever seen (after Budge) and one of the best forehands and serves. And Gene was around as a player himself from the late 1930’s through the 1950’s. He told me Tilden loved the game so much that he played all the time, was in great shape, and could beat anyone in the world for at least a set all the way into his fifties.
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The following year, 1948, Perry T. Jones, the head of the Southern California Tennis Association, and the most powerful man in California tennis, 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. 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.
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I also don’t understand why Tilden does not get more credit for his genius and being the forerunner of the modern game with his concept of the “all court player”. It seems like a lot of the modern books on tennis strategies like Gilbert’s “Winning Ugly” can trace the roots of their strategies back to Tilden. Tilden is also in line with the thought processes in Sun Tzu. Was he maybe tactically the best player of all time?
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Gonzales played in the era of fast courts. I saw him play when he was past his prime, but remember being impressed by his service motion and his athletic ability and foot speed. He used the same grip for most of his shots, which was not uncommon back in the day of fast courts when volleying was paramount. No doubt he would have adjusted to today’s game, as physically he had the whole package. He was as good a competitor as anyone who ever played at that level, and he was passionate about the game. One of the all-time greats, and peerless as a pure athlete.
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There will never be another Pancho Gonzales. I would love to see him playing today with the new rackets and his serve and volley style would destroy many opponents despite the claims that “serve and volley” tennis is a thing of the past- utter nonsense!
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This is a beautiful story of a great player!
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I saw the 1971 Connors, Gonzales match at the Southwest.
In the run up matches where I had seen Connors, I didn’t think I had ever seen anybody hit so hard or accurately as Connors. I believe he won the NCAA’s that year for UCLA.
Gonzales and Connors were practice partners while Connors was coached by Pancho Segura that year, and they knew each others games very well. Gonzales won in a good match
One of his strategies was to spin serves wide to Connors back hand, which he did the whole match. Gonzales was amazing that day.
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In Kramer’s wonderful book The Game, he discusses Pancho at great length. He considered him (as of 1979) one of the six best players of all time — but not the best. (The others? Chronologically: Tilden, Vines, Perry, Budge, and Riggs.) He thought that on a long tour Riggs would have beaten him, surely a contrarian thought. BUT he also devotes a couple of paragraphs as to why he thought Gorgo was clearly better than Laver. From someone who has a fair claim himself to have been the greatest player who ever lived, those are certainly interesting comments.
Around 1958 the touring pros played a Round Robin tournament at the L.A. Tennis Club over a period of maybe a week. The seven greatest players in the world, including Gorgo, Sedge, Hoadie, Rosewall, and Segura. I saw Gorgo beat Muscles one night. Sedge was the most graceful of the bunch and had the game that I dreamed of playing. But guess who won the tournament? Little Segoo, never losing a match against six of the all-time greats!
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Gonzales was unquestionably the best tennis player of all time. Consider these facts:
1) Winner of 124 ATP Professional tournaments – nobody has ever beaten that record and no one will!
2) Longevity – The only player to be inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame while still an active player.
3) Great Wins: Over players like Ashe, Rosewall and Newcombe (who already won Wimbledon three times) all at the Howard Hughes tournament when Pancho was already 41 years old!
4) A super game- Great Serve and Volley, moved like a cat at the net and could run down a lot of balls. Plus his ground strokes were hard and flat with a 115 mile an hour forehand!
I would love to see him play today with the new rackets- he would definitely dominate Nadal, and Federer despite all the nonsense commentators feed us that it’s almost impossible to serve and volley! These people never saw a true tennis player like Gonzales play! A bunch of wimps the players are today!
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I meant to say in my previous comment that Dr. Fox’s article was a wonderful one and that I am very happy to have run across it. Fine writing, and great insights. When I was a teenager and young man in the Beverly HIlls area I played in a lot of the local tournaments, including the annual B. H. amateur, but never ran across Dr. Fox — wish I had!
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I was fortunate at age 11 when Pancho came up to Arden Hills Tennis and Swim Club (Carmichael, CA) to teach me how to serve at the request of my reknown pro and a friend of Pancho’s, Nick Carter. I never looked back as I went on to play at UCLA along the likes of Arthur Ashe, Charlie Passarell etc.
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Also played Alen Fox in the earlier days at Sutter Lawn Tennis Club (Sacramento, CA) in mid 60’s.
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Sorry for the slow reply, Jeff. Did you beat me?
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Thanks Hayford! I’m happy you enjoyed the article on Pancho. He was an extraordinary man.
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You were indeed fortunate an Pancho was a great teacher of the serve and volley game – many pros of today should have taken a lesson from him!
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You were probably a kid at the time. A lot of water under the bridge since then, eh Jeff?
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I saw Pancho win the long match against Passarel at Wimbeldon. He is the greatest player of all times, followed by Hoad, Kramer and Laver. Wish a serve and volleyer like Gonzales, Hoad, Kramer and Laver will come soon to make tennis as interesting as it used to be.
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I attended Gonzales vs. Laver at MSG in 1970. As I recall it, PG won in 4 sets against the recent winner of the Grand Slam. For his efforts, PG received a winners check of 10K. It was my introduction to tennis and, as I was favorably impressed by the sport, it is a memory that I treasure. Thanks Dad for taking us to this historic and highly memorable match.
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Thank you for this. I’ve been arguing this for a long time. Before computer rankings, the sportswriters decided who was the best of the year .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_number_1_male_tennis_player_rankings
Pancho was #1 8 years, more than anyone. Renshaw, Tilden and Laver had 7. And Federer, with 5, has a losing record against his 2 closest rivals.
It’s all about selling the current star!!
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