Richard Alanzo Gonzales, surely the strongest and possibly the finest player
in tennis history, came of age in the Navy. He didn't learn his serve on a
battleship or his lob on a destroyer or his backhand on a cruiser. He learned,
simply, how to grow up*
Until Pancho Gonzales left his native Los Angeles and joined the Navy in
1945, he was a wild, undisciplined youth who skipped school, heaved tennis rac
kets and, in general, made life miserable for the men running the Southern Cal
ifornia tennis association. When he-came out of the Navy he had changed-not in
his tennis game but in his personality,, He seemed more mature, more poised,
more in command of himself. "I realized," he said, "that I had made a lot of
mistakes. But after the Navy I just wanted to do one thing. I wanted to prove
that I was a great tennis player."
Gonzales proved his point. In the past decade he firmly establish3d himself
as the king of tennis. Twice he . won the U.S. amateur singles championship at
Forest Hills. For the past six years, an unprecedented reign, he has been the
Dost of the professionals. What Babe Ruth was to baseball in the 1920s, Gon
zales was to tennis in the 1950s.
"The picture of Gonzales in action is unforgettable," a sportswrite# <mce
':;cote. "For pure artistry it rates with Musial, coiled and ready to strike?
Cousy, flipping a backhand pass; Snead, at the height of his backswing; and
Arcaro, whipping a horse through the stretch. Wien he serves, Gonzales strains,
rears back and fires. Despite, his size he rushes catlike to the net, defying
an opponent to return service.
"His lpng, light strides carry him to shots that lesser men never reach. On
an overhand slam he kicks up and follows through with frightening force. His
nervous energy is never wasted. It is stacked up into a huge pile until tho
shere weight of Pancho1s ability falls upon an opponent, startling him at first,
then bewildering him and, finally, crashing him."
This is what the King looked like in his court. But now the king is i. >bed.
His reign is over. At the end of the 1960 pro tour Gonzales announce: tho* he
was retiring from steady, competitive tennis. The loser is tennis.
There may never be another tennis champion so intensely dramatic,so curiously
aopealing. To understand him was almost impossible; to know him was to admire
L:n. ‘ He was called
Moving from town ...
sv.A . rcharged Ford
^ travel alone,"
,£• for tho others’ ani
’ of tennis," and he lived up t
nrofessional circuit he hr-;
u iy lived by himself and e
. v„_- o.ed, "I can leave when I vv?v •
j, don’t have to wait for me. Wnen
want to
o .a
;• top
3 nr-3 than just a .»ner. He w^s a cnanipi an An the
n. ,• ...ha ?uhhs; rhe oranons, ciy Z?T• . champ
to ron step, with eac • worT, ho exuded el.; tv.-*
i-nq - grim, determined., cev*Lncod chat he v*. s
•: ■:; 1 ' .• o s t s h o’; 1 d v 1 r.. • e v a ry xa t oh.
id tried unsucc•>srful 1 v to dethrone Gonzales as pro
champ, the Australian offeree insight; into Pancho*s personality, "he’s
hard to learn to know,'; car" Hoag• ' x guess he xoels no y-** - bo witn
a fellow he has to try to heac e/cry night„Hoad smiled. • ••.•/•ayoo .v?• s righL,"
he said, "He's rather good, you know." (AFPS)
But .hnche Gc-nzaIo
wa y that only t. a -r. t
o’ons. With eo. d:, h.
sion. He played- Always
che host re. ‘ ronvi .r 3d
iwc year a ago vivon L