GOING TO THE US OPEN WITH UNCLE RICHARD AKA PANCHO GONZALEZ BY GREG GONZALES

Written by: Staff on 26th October 2016

GOING TO THE US OPEN WITH UNCLE RICHARD AKA PANCHO GONZALEZ BY GREG GONZALES |

10sBalls decided to pull this story from the vault.

My first trip to the big city of New York and the US Open was in 1969 when as a kid I travelled with my Uncle Richard, a.k.a. Pancho Gonzalez, arguably the greatest player of all time. He was then past his prime, but he was still “Mr. Tennis”. My father and Pancho’s son Mike also attended. Over the years when the “lone wolf” wasn’t travelling on his own, my uncle’s “entourage” was comprised of my father, Pancho’s eldest three sons, and myself. The tournament was then held on the grass courts of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. The Club seemed huge as I recall seeing so many grass courts the first time I walked out of the clubhouse onto the grounds. There were so many courts that it seemed like a fairly long walk from the clubhouse out to the huge Stadium that had three courts inside of it. Besides it being so big I recollect how beautiful and old it was, it seemed to have been built in the 1920’s or 30’s.

I knew Forest Hills as the place where Uncle Richard won the 1949 finals when he defeated that year’s Wimbledon Champion Ted Schroeder, a match once considered one of the top ten greatest ever played. He won that match after losing the first two sets, the last man to do so in the finals. He often referred to this as his greatest win, as he held our National Championships in the highest regard. That match also dispelled all the naysayers, some who had called him a cheese champion since he won the 1948 Championship in which Schroeder did not compete. He also signed a pro contract with Bobby Riggs shortly thereafter, and eventually became No. 1 player in the world for 10 years.

In the late 60’s I spent summers at my Uncle’s Malibu tennis kids camp and can remember some of his training routine leading up to the Open. He would usually wake up around 8:30 at which time I would make his bed and then bring him juice to drink. He didn’t eat much when training to lose weight and make himself hungry. By around noon he would leave for Los Angeles to practice with the UCLA players for 4-5 hours. They say he would play one after another wearing each of them down. He leaned towards playing as his means of training. About a week before the tournament started he spoke less and less. I can remember sometimes saying hi and he just kept looking and walking forward with no response. He was ready.

Pancho Gonzalez

The preparation phase also included his rackets. There was an area behind the camp’s kitchen that had work benches and vises. This is where my father and others would help prepare my uncle’s Spalding aluminum rackets for competition. The sides would be filed down and holes drilled into the side to bring the weight down to under 12 ounces. The grips were reshaped and wrapped with Fairway brown leather grips. My uncle would add the weights to different parts of the rackets, generally the heads, to balance them just the way he liked them. He would smash the head to make it more circular, which he believed increased the size of the sweet spot. As a very successful drag racer that held many records, like a racing mechanic, he loved to tinker and try different changes to his rackets. He seemed to be ahead of his time as many of his racket changes were implemented into racket technology later on. Finally, after strung with gut the large S stencil for Spalding would be placed onto the string and sprayed black.

I remember carrying his rackets for him on the trip from Los Angeles to New York, about 7 racket frames wrapped together with white medical tape. That was before the big tennis bags. I don’t recall where we stayed, but there were no luxuries and I don’t remember seeing any other players there. Uncle Richard wouldn’t allow us to turn on the air conditioning during the day. My main job was to massage his feet every day for about a half an hour. He had electrical massagers that fit on your hands like horse brushes. At the time, I thought that job stunk but I now better appreciate how this benefitted him given he was going through such tremendous strain at his age.

It has been written that Pancho retired more times than an opera singer. He played on and off after relinquishing his pro crown in 1961 at the age of 33. With the advent of the Open era in 1968 he competed a lot more consistently. He was now 41 years old, but still winning big matches and still tennis’s greatest draw. Watching the “Big Cat” move across the court was still truly beautiful. That, along with his ability to hit great shots, and his unpredictability made him popular and captivating.

It was a special time in tennis and there were a lot of great players to watch such as Laver, Rosewall, Ashe, Newcombe, Roche, Okker and many more. There were no night matches. That’s when Mike and I could get away. We would jump on the subway and go to Times Square every night. We’d have a nice meal and then watch a movie. I recollect “Wild Bunch” had just opened which I was a bit young to be watching. Mike and I really enjoyed those evenings together.

In the 3rd round, I carried Uncle Richard’s rackets into the Stadium and onto center court when he played against Torben Ulrich. He was my uncle’s age and more often than not he played my uncle tough. It was a five set match that my uncle eventually won and was one of the top matches of the tournament. I can remember my uncle hitting some great passing shots that match. My dad said after the match, my uncle’s entire body cramped up and it was one of the grossest things he had ever seen.

My impression was there were two potentialities we hoped wouldn’t happen, a long five set match or rain. Before the use of the tiebreaker, five set matches might leave him too tired for his next match and rain could cause matches to be played in daily succession rather than the normal day break between matches exacerbating the circumstances. To make matters worse, at his age his footing wasn’t as good on wet grass. Any ways, Uncle Richard lost his next match against Aussie Tony Roche, the 1968 No. 2 seed he had beaten the year before when he reached the quarter-finals. In 1969 Roche eventually lost to Laver in the finals, when Laver won his second grand slam. Soon after his loss to Roche we departed home for Los Angeles.

The next big tournament back then was the Pacific Southwest at the Los Angeles Tennis Club with all the top men and women players. Uncle Richard won that tournament, as he did 20 years earlier in 1949. Then a couple of weeks later he won the Las Vegas Howard Hughes Open, the highest paying tournament on the tour at the time. He defeated Newcombe, Rosewall, Smith, and Ashe in the final 6-0, 6-2, and 6-4. He ended the year ranked No. 6 at the age of 41. Not too bad.

My uncle was a very tough man, but also kind in many ways to family, friends and many others, albeit mostly secretly. Thanks Uncle Richard for taking me to New York and so many special memories I wouldn’t have had if not for you.

Topics: Mr. Tennis, New York, Pancho Gonzalez, Tennis Legend, Tennis News, US Open

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10sBalls_com says:

September 18, 2015 at 9:10 am

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10sBalls_com says:

September 19, 2015 at 11:51 pm

GOING TO THE #USOpen WITH UNCLE RICHARD AKA PANCHO GONZALEZ BY GREG GONZALES – http://t.co/mZLrBtHdmP #tennis #Legend #PanchoGonzalez