On the internet there are circulating some myths about Pancho Gonzales. No doubt, he was one of the greatest players of all time, whose best years were officially lost due to his pro status. But he was not 10 years the Nr. 1 pro, 'only' 7-8 years from 1954 to 1960 - a great record by itself, which needs no exaggeration. In some pro rankings of the famous paper L'Equipe Ken Rosewall was ranked the Nr. 1 pro in 1960/61. Gonzales retired in 1961 and came back in 1964. He was still very dangerous, but never won a big pro title since 1961. In 1965 he had a good run, reaching 10 finals against Rod Laver, losing 8. A famous myth is (i found it recently on wikipedia), that old Pancho never lost to new pro Roy Emerson after tennis went open in 1968. Maybe Pancho has a winning head-to-head, but he indeed lost a 10.000 $ winner take all match at Los Angeles in February 1970 by the score of 3-6,2-6,0-6. My source is an old Tennis Magazine number of 1970, i recently got a hand at.
Emerson did beat Gonzales
- Thread starter urban
- Start date
1964
Regarding Gonzales not winning an important Pro title after 1961...
Apparently Gonzales won the 'World Professional Championship' that year (1964) beating Laver. I think this was just the promoter calling this (was it in Cleveland?). I still think it was regarded as a pretiguious title at the time. Howard Cosell certainly thought so.
Regarding Gonzales not winning an important Pro title after 1961...
Apparently Gonzales won the 'World Professional Championship' that year (1964) beating Laver. I think this was just the promoter calling this (was it in Cleveland?). I still think it was regarded as a pretiguious title at the time. Howard Cosell certainly thought so.
When i wrote that piece, the title pro major or pro grand slam wasn't coined yet nor commonly used. With the term big titles, I thought of the so called pro majors, Wembley, US pro, which Pancho won 8 times, and French pro. Pancho won some important pro events in the 60s, including the US pro indoors at Cleveland in 1964 or the Wembley BBC Invitational (not the more important Wembley London pro) in 1966. Even in the open era he won the LA Southwest Pacific twice and the Las Vegas title once.
