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King of slam

Latino tennis player Pancho Gonzales ruled court with attitude and iron swing

When Andre Agassi played his final U.S. Open over Labor Day weekend, many may have felt they'd witnessed the greatest player retire.

There are those who say it would be wrong to think so.

There was a fiery Latino player who was both revered and reviled on the court, an athlete who left an extraordinary legacy. In 1999 Sports Illustrated named Pancho Gonzales one of its top 20 favorite athletes of the 20th century. According to SI, "If earth was on the line in a tennis match, the man you want serving to save humankind would be Ricardo Alonzo Gonzales."

A new documentary about the legendary tennis player is set to air Thanksgiving weekend on PBS.

Goodyear resident Greg Gonzales, 49, a nephew of the court king, has many memories
of his uncle, the sharpest of which is seeing him play.

"There was just beauty and emotion to watching him play with the greatest intensity. It was like Ali stepping into the ring," Gonzales recalls. "It was very explosive, very exciting. He could do tremendous things when he played."

In Pancho Gonzales: Warrior of the Court, we learn about the young boy's passion for a new game, a sport in which he excelled with little coaching. In this amateur arena, competition was fierce. It was extremely rare for someone from a low-income Los Angeles family to see success among the wealthy Anglo players. Gonzales was too good a player to be criticized for his natural technique; instead, other players took to calling him "Pancho" to rile his temper. His mother would never call him by anything other than Richard.

"He was a superior athlete," Greg Gonzales says. "He was banned from tennis tournaments in southern California. He was the best in his age group, but he wasn't attending school regularly, so they came up with a rule banning him from participating. He ended up in jail for burglary when he was 15, then he was in the Navy.

"The point is, he never had any formal tennis lessons. He was very determined and ended up being the best in the world."

Mexico tried to recruit Gonzales in 1948 to represent the country in play, but Gonzales turned the privilege down. That same year, at age 20, he would become U.S. National Lawn Tennis Champion.

The super athlete would play from the late '40s into the early '70s. While a pro, Gonzales routinely beat top amateur players such as Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe and Ken Rosewal, but was prevented from playing in the four major championships: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, French Open and Australian Open.

These were the years before "open" tennis; Gonzales would not be permitted to play in established tournaments until 1968. The next year Gonzales played one of Wimbledon's legendary matches against Charlie Pasarell. The match lasted for 112 games, played more than five hours over the course of two days. He was already a grandfather. He won. Later, at 40, Gonzales would reach the semifinals of the French Open, and to the quarterfinals at age 41. He holds the record for being the oldest professional tennis play to win a Grand Slam.

"He was a tough guy, but I hit with him quite a few times," Greg says. "He was not a man of many words."

The champion's fierce determination was a hallmark of the men in the Gonzales family, Greg points out.

"My grandfather walked from Parral, Chihuahua to Globe when he was about 10, with his father. It was hundreds of miles to get here," Greg says, adding that his grandfather's family settled in Globe with an uncle, Gonzalo Gonzales.

Greg's own father, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 70, sought to tell the tennis legend's story to other inner city Latino kids, to encourage them. The tennis king was Greg's godfather; Greg's father filled the same role for Pancho's sons.

Gonzales was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1968 while still an active player. Gonzales retired from professional tennis at age 47. Later, while watching the Wimbledon Championships in 1995, he would succumb to cancer.

"He just wanted to play tennis and do his own thing," Greg says. "He's a controversial figure. He had to really fight to stay where he wanted. Either you loved him or you hated him."