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Richard Gonzales: the real record shows his greatness.
Is Roger Federer the greatest player of all time, or is it Rafael Nadal ,or was it really Pete Sampras? Or Rod Laver? Or someone else? The argument will continue indefinitely. But an unbiased examination of the actual history of the game shows that player was Richard Gonzales.
What are the criteria for determining historical greatness? Most pundits start with Slam titles. Whenever the name of Richard “Pancho” Gonzales comes up in that discussion, he is dismissed because he only won two, the US Nationals in 1948 and 1949.
In some polls, Gonzales doesn’t even make the twenty greatest of all time. Jack Kramer, who had an agenda regarding his own greatness, said this about Gonzales’s history: “You look up the records, they don’t show anything.”
But the quality of pre-open tennis is completely misunderstood and therefore the validity of the Slam criteria. Why? Because of the vast difference in levels between the amateurs who played the Slams and the pros who could not.
A look at the real history of the game tells a different story. That record shows conclusively that Gonzales was the greatest of all time. He dominated the…