The amateur years
United States · born Los Angeles, 1928 · died 1995 · twice US champion
All playersBack to the rankings
2
US singles titles, 1948 and 1949
1949
Wimbledon doubles champion with Frank Parker
112
Games against Charlie Pasarell, Wimbledon 1969
7
Match points saved in that match
41
His age when he beat Pasarell
Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Gonzales was given a 51-cent racquet by his mother at 12 and largely taught himself. After two years in the navy he won the US Championships at Forest Hills in 1948 and 1949, took the 1949 Wimbledon and French doubles, and won both his singles in the 1949 Davis Cup final against Australia. He turned professional that year at 21, lost his first tour to Jack Kramer and later held the professional No. 1 ranking for eight years from 1952, winning the US Pro eight times and Wembley four times. Barred from the majors as a professional, he returned to them when tennis went open in 1968, aged 40. He was tennis director at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for 16 years, entered the Hall of Fame in 1968 and died in 1995.
| Major singles titles | 2: US (1948, 1949) |
|---|---|
| Other grass singles titles | 10: Forest Hills Tournament of Champions 2 (1957, 1958); Scarborough Slazenger Pro 2 (1952, 1955); Cleveland World Pro (1964); NSW Pro Championships (1965); Newport (1949); Pennsylvania Grass Court (1949); Southampton (1948); Sydney White City Tournament of Champions (1959) |
| Major doubles titles | 1 doubles (Wimbledon 1) |
| Other grass doubles titles | 1: US Pro (Forest Hills) (1951) |
| Wimbledon singles | Seeded in 1949 and lost in the fourth round to Geoff Brown. Barred as a professional until 1968, when he lost in the third round; fourth round 1969 |
| Wimbledon doubles | Champion 1949 with Frank Parker, beat Gardnar Mulloy and Ted Schroeder 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 |
| Finals to remember | US 1948: beat Eric Sturgess 6-2, 6-3, 14-12. US 1949: lost a first set of 75 minutes to Ted Schroeder and came back from two sets down to win 16-18, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 |
| Wimbledon 1969 | First round on Centre Court over two days: beat Charlie Pasarell 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9 in 112 games, saving seven match points. Lost to Arthur Ashe in the fourth round |
| US Open 1968 | Aged 40, beat Tony Roche in the fourth round at Forest Hills and lost the quarter-final to Tom Okker |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Men's doubles | with Frank Parker |
| US Championships | ||
| 1948 | Men's singles | |
| 1949 | Men's singles | |
| Southampton (Meadow Club) | ||
| 1948 | Men's singles Southampton Invitational | |
| Newport, Rhode Island | ||
| 1949 | Men's singles Newport Casino Invitational | |
| Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion) | ||
| 1949 | Men's singles | |
| US Pro Championships | ||
| 1951 | Men's doubles†| with Pancho Segura |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"The rankest outsider of modern times sits on the tennis throne."
The person behind the player.
Los Angeles, 1940
His mother gave him a racquet that cost 51 cents when he was 12. Apart from some advice from a friend, Chuck Pate, he taught himself by watching players at Exposition Park. He liked tennis more than school, and when Perry T. Jones, head of the Southern California association, learned of his truancy he banned him from tournaments.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1949
After he lost in the fourth round of the singles, the press mocked the US champion as a "cheese champion". His doubles partner Frank Parker began calling him Gorgonzales, after the cheese, and it was cut down to Gorgo. The two of them still won the doubles. Kramer credited the reporter Jim Burchard with the original jibe.
Source: WikipediaForest Hills 1949
His rival that summer was Ted Schroeder, whom he and Parker beat in the Wimbledon doubles final and who then took a 75-minute first set and a two-set lead in the US final before Gonzales won. Decades later Schroeder summed them up: "We hardly ever spoke a civil word to one another, yet we were friends."
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1969 · Day one
The match began after 7pm on a gloomy day. As the light went he bellowed, "How the hell can I play when I can't see?" The referee, Captain Mike Gibson, was unmoved. Gonzales slammed his racquet by the umpire's chair, clipping a BBC microphone, left to boos at the end of the second set and fumed over backgammon until 2am.
Source: Tennis.comWimbledon 1969 · Day two
Two sets down, he won the third 16-14. In the fifth he saved three match points from 0-40 at 4-5, three more from 0-40 at 5-6 and one at 7-8, then won 11-9. The 112 games broke a Wimbledon record of 82 set in 1918, and the crowd that had booed him gave him a long ovation.
Source: Tennis.comMadison Square Garden 1970
At 42 he beat Rod Laver in a $10,000 winner-take-all match before about 15,000 people in New York. Laver said of him that he got meaner every time they played. He kept winning titles into 1972, at Des Moines, before joining the Grand Masters circuit in 1973.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
Join freePage updated 3 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.
