Allen Fox Playing the Greats: Pancho Gonzalez

Pancho, age 20, after his first U.S. Championships in 1948. Pancho Gonzales was, arguably, the greatest player of all time. 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, entering the world's top ten for the first time, and was ranked number six in the world in 1969 before finally exiting the top ten 21 years later. 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 where he defeated Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Malcolm Anderson, Alex Olmedo, Ashley Cooper, Frank Sedgeman and Tony Trabert. During that period he won 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. What can we learn from the career of this incredible performer? Possibly that superb athleticism, fiery desire, and iron will can...