Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura in 1961
|
|
| Full name | Francisco Olegario Segura Cano |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 Ecuador United States
|
| Residence | La Costa, California |
| Born |
June 20, 1921 Guayaquil, Ecuador |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Turned pro | 1947 (amateur tour from 1939) |
| Retired | 1970 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed forehand) |
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1984 (member page) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 16–16 |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (1950, PLTA) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| French Open | 3R (1946) |
| Wimbledon | 3R (1946) |
| US Open | SF (1942, 1943, 1944, 1945) |
| Other tournaments | |
| TOC | SF (1956, 1957) |
| Professional majors | |
| US Pro | W (1950, 1951, 1952) |
| Wembley Pro | F (1951, 1957, 1959, 1960) |
| French Pro | W (1950) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 8–9 |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| French Open | F (1946) |
| US Open | F (1944) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| US Open | F (1943, 1947) |
Pancho "Segoo" Segura (born Francisco Olegario Segura on June 20, 1921) is a former leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but moved to the United States in the late 1930s and is a citizen of both countries. He is the only player to have won the US Pro title on three different surfaces (which he did consecutively from 1950–1952).
Pancho was the firstborn of seven children of Domingo Segura Paredes and Fransisca Cano. He almost died at his premature birth, then suffered from hernias and malaria. No more than 5'6" (1.68 m) tall, he had badly bowed legs from the rickets that he also had as a child. In spite of this, he had extremely fast footwork and a devastating two-handed forehand that his frequent adversary and tennis promoter Jack Kramer once called the greatest single shot ever produced in tennis.
By the time he was 17 Segura had won a number of titles in Latin America and was offered a tennis scholarship by Gardnar Mulloy, Tennis Coach, at the University of Miami. He won the National Collegiate Singles Championship for three straight years: in 1943, 1944, and 1945. He was also the No. 3 ranked American player during those years. He won the U.S. Indoors in 1946 and U.S. Clay Courts in 1944 but was never able to win the United States Championships at Forest Hills, NY although he reached the semifinals a number of times.
Kramer writes that he lost:
"without distinction (to Tom Brown and Jaroslav Drobný) the two times he played Wimbledon, and really, nobody took Segoo seriously. He didn't speak English well, he had a freak shot, and on the grass while scooting around in his long white pants with his bowlegs, he looked like a little butterball. A dirty butterball: his pants were always grass-strained."
...
Wikipedia