Pancho Gonzales

Who was Pancho Gonzales?

Ricardo Alonso González, also known as Richard Gonzales, and usually as Pancho Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He was the World No. 1 tennis player for an all time record eight years from 1952 to 1960. He won 17 Major singles titles including 15 Pro Slams and 2 Grand Slams.

Largely self-taught, Gonzales was a successful amateur player in the late-1940s, twice winning the United States Championships. He is still widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A 1999 Sports Illustrated article about the magazine's 20 "favorite athletes" of the 20th century said about Gonzales: "If earth was on the line in a tennis match, the man you want serving to save humankind would be Ricardo Alonso Gonzalez." The American tennis commentator Bud Collins echoed this in an August 2006 article for MSNBC.com: "If I had to choose someone to play for my life, it would be Pancho Gonzales."