Some reports of the 1965 CBS TV Pro Classic in Dallas, which we now know was on clay.
Gonzalez beat Laver and Rosewall back-to-back.
Dallas Morning News of April 20, 1965:
The new emerging star of professional tennis crashes head-on Tuesday with a man who was a leading light in a private galaxy when Jupiter was a pup.
Rod Laver, who in less than three years on the professional circuit has risen to No. 2 ranking, meets Pancho Gonzales at 1:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the CBS-TV sponsored pro tennis tournament at Dallas Country Club.
Laver cut down Mike Davies, 8-6, 6-1, to advance. In Monday’s other match, Andres Gimeno, fourth ranked among pros, defeated Butch Buchholz, 7-5, 10-8. Gimeno plays pro king Ken Rosewall in Tuesday’s second semifinal match.
The winners meet Wednesday for the championship.
Dallas Morning News of April 21:
Pancho’s Lessons Costly
Laver Takes One in Psychology for $2,500
By GARY CARTWRIGHT
Rod Laver took a $2,500 tennis lesson Tuesday.
The red-haired Australian with the Dixie Cup nose, the Tabasco sauce complexion and the armory of exquisite shots was at least a co-favorite to zip up the $8,000 first prize in the television-sponsored pro tennis tournament at Dallas Country Club. He had, after all, won three straight on the recent Australian circuit, home of the Original School of Hard Knocks.
But Tuesday’s semifinals was graduate study, and the teacher was that renowned professor of psychology, Dr. Richard P. Gonzales.
WITH THE DISPATCH of a well-placed serve, the 36-year-old Gonzales diagrammed Laver’s strategy, exposed it as infantile folly and rang up a brilliantly-executed 8-6, 6-3 win over the young Australian.
Gonzales thus goes against Ken Rosewall Wednesday at 1 p.m. for first money. Rosewall, a co-favorite with Laver, easily handled Andres Gimeno of Spain, 6-4, 6-3. Gimeno and Laver each retired with $2,500 for two days work, leaving Gonzales and Rosewall to determine who settles for second place, $5,000.
Laver and Gonzales furnished not only a test of the new and the old, but an examination of classic style. Laver’s job was to neutralize Gonzales’ super-serve by keeping the ball in play and tiring the nearly-retired master.
Ironically, Laver lost on his own serve.
With Gonzales leading the first set 7-6 and Laver serving, Gonzales five times carried his talented young opponent to set point, and each time Laver rallied superbly.
THEN, IN A PATTERN Gonzales established from the beginning, Laver was allowed to beat himself with his fourth double fault of the set.
Gonzales built a quick 3-0 lead in the second set and coasted to the finals.
“Gonzales played about as tough as I’ve ever seen him,” said tennis-Godfather Jack Kramer. “It was too bad Rod doubled on set point, but when you’re doubling like that it’s because of something your opponent is doing. Three times on set point Laver served terrifically, hitting it deep almost to the line. Then he made a small error and Gonzales had him.”
By nature, Laver is a scrambler, an attacker. He plays as viciously on set-point as he does on the first point of the match, and Tuesday he continually darted back to the base line to return near-impossible shots. Occasionally Laver’s incredible array of shots sank inches out of reach of the aging Gonzales, and when Gonzales was unable to lash in his first service he was usually in trouble.
BUT GONZALES infrequently missed with his first serve, and Laver missed a bunch; that was the difference.
“He plays well,” said Laver, “but I missed too many opportunities. I wasn’t concentrating too well.”
Someone mentioned that Gonzales made precious few mistakes, and Laver cracked, “I made them before he had a chance.”
Laver said, “It’s not easy to concentrate against Gonzales. Why? His power serves . . . his dinks (short lobs) . . . and his arguments with the linesmen . . . that sort of thing.”
Gonzales just smiled like a fox in a hatchery and said he concentrated on making good his first serve. The rest, he said, was up to Laver.
Like any good lesson, it was costly.
Dallas Morning News of April 22, by Gary Cartwright:
Even at $25,000 this was more than CBS-television had bargained for.
Their cameras had already run out of tape once, and if neither Pancho Gonzales nor Ken Rosewall broke his to-the-death grip soon, television’s first canned tennis series might press Peyton Place for pure quantity.
Then in the 20th game of the third set Rosewall double faulted, Gonzales broke his service and as soon as Gonzales had whipped a match point serve of his own by Rosewall, tennis had a new king and a new alibi.
TELEVISION, said Rosewall, cost him the $8,000 title, although there will be some who say he missed the point. Certainly he missed the point in misjudging Gonzales’ senior citizenship, and when the final results were in—8-10, 7-5, 12-10 for Gonzales—the 37-year-old American looked the fresher.
“That break (of about 10 minutes) to change tape threw me out of gear,” said Rosewall, who had won the first set and was leading the second 2-1 when the men who were paying the bill called an emergency recess. “It gave him a chance to rest.”
Gonzales didn’t dispute this claim.
Until that break Gonzales was the straight man, laying back on the base line in the style of tennis that made Rosewall the world’s champion. Gonzales is a power player, who needs to charge the net. Instead Rosewall was forcing him to play deep, involve himself in long, running rallies and play safe on the slower surface of Dallas Country Club’s clay courts.
Rested, Gonzales changed the pattern dramatically.
Now Rosewall was unable to scamper back and recover all the lobs from the net, and now Rosewall was losing his sharpness on passing shots.
IN THE 29TH GAME of the match, Gonzales finally broke Rosewall’s service. For the first time since the start, Gonzales led a set, which he eventually won, 7-5.
In the first game of the third set, Gonzales again broke Rosewall’s service, and in the twist of those back-to-back breaks, Rosewall lost his grip on world tennis.
In the eighth game Rosewall rallied brilliantly, breaking Gonzales’ serve even after the younger player had watched helplessly while Gonzales spun two aces past him.
By then Gonzales had no monopoly on fatigue.
That fact was clearly established in the 15th game when Rosewall twice double faulted, and Gonzales broke away, 7-6. Rosewall broke back and tied it at 7-7, and now Gonzales appeared to be slipping.
“I could feel cramps in both legs,” he said later. “I was just lucky they didn’t start sooner. It was an exhausting game, but I have to believe he felt it, too, at the end.”
IN THE 20TH game of that final set Rosewall again double-faulted and lost his service, and Gonzales put him away in the 21st game.
When Rosewall feebly poked Gonzales serve into the net on match point, both opponents appeared slightly relieved.
Difference between first and second was $3,000-$8,000 to $5,000. Both are records for pro tennis. Everyone got his money’s worth.
QF defeated Sedgman 6-3, 6-3
SF defeated Laver 8-6, 6-3
F defeated Rosewall 8-10, 7-5, 12-10
If these reports are correct, Rosewall held serve 14 straight times to open the final. That's a high number on clay, though it also may indicate Gonzalez's diminished ability to break serve at this stage of his career; we often see older players' return stats go down even while their service hold rates remain high.
, and Rosewall won 7 of the 10 tournaments that year
