Ganzalez vs Pasarell Wimbledon

[gzhpcu]

Here is a nice short summary. Gonzalez saved 7 match points!

[bottle]

I love it when you come up with something like this-- a very great match that one had only read about, then, here it is, or at least all of its squandered match points. Poor Charlie Pasarell. All those closely missed lobs!

[stotty]

Gonzales hits some really deep volley at times to extricate himself from defeat. He doesn't pulverise them but instead guides them, places them.

[stotty]

Amazing player wasn't he, Gonzales? In a sense he's the greatest player that never was in terms of grand slam achievements. He won two US Opens before turning pro, which barring him from entering grand slam events for 17 years. You can't help wondering how many slams he might have won had he been eligible to play slams throughout his career. I think he would have won 20 or so.

[gzhpcu]

Interview with Pasarell years later. He saya how Pancho came over to console him after the match. Gonzales mentored Pasarell.

[don_budge]

The Model is Richard Gonzalez...with the Don Budge backhand.

Here is a nice short summary. Gonzalez saved 7 match points!

The short summary makes me wish we had the whole enchilada. What a riveting character to watch. Every minor expression...every singular movement. This is no ordinary human being.

At four games to five and love-40 he misses a first serve. But being fatalistic he pours the second one in deep to Pasarell's backhand and charges towards the net deftly taking the ball off of his shoe laces, keeping it low and forcing Charlie to hit up. Charlie's lob goes just long. On the next match point he pounds the first serve in to the backhand once again and is rewarded with a return that goes long. On the third match point Gonzalez hits another first serve deep into the Pasarell backhand and Pasarell this time returns to the middle of the court crowding the Gonzalez forehand volley. Richard gives the ball a bit of sidespin twist. It may have been the spin that caused Pasarell's lob to drift a millimetre outside of the line...Charlie gives it a hard look but says nothing. Finally back to deuce Gonzalez hits a let serve then immediately gets back to work and laces another first serve into the backhand side of Pasarell. This time he gets a rather high backhand volley that he tactically places deep into the backhand of Pasarell. Pasarell and Gonzalez appears to hit a rather tentative smash which Pasarell lobs off of again and Gonzalez finishes this time. Even the second smash seems to be slightly mishit. Now serving to win the game and get even Gonzalez hits yet another first serve in to the Pasarell backhand and Pasarell replies with a shoulder high forehand volley which Gonzalez slightly mishits again but he get the ball deep into the backhand side forcing Pasarell to lob again. Again Gonzalez's smash is not good enough to finish and Pasarell hits a sharp angle forehand pass which Gonzalez plays on the bounce short to the backhand. Pasarell racing clear across court plays the sharp angle cross court sending Gonzalez diving in vain. Deuce again.

First in again but this time to the Pasarell forehand...crowding him a little. Pasarell returns to the backhand of Gonzalez and again Gonzalez appears to use some sidespin twist which shoots the ball off of the slick grass unplayable for Pasarell. Gonzalez finally misses a first serve but spins in the second and Pasarell misses the return. Game to Gonzalez. Back even at five games all.

Pasarell holds serve and once again Gonzalez finds himself down love-40 on his own serve facing match points. What does he do? He pours in three first serves in a row to pull even at deuce. With the pressure off just a bit he misses a first serve but Charlie misses his return on the second ball. Another first serve in and Gonzalez once again seems to use a bit of sidespin on his volley that is steered very close to the baseline. Pasarell makes a very energetic attempt at a pass and Richard lunges and barely gets the volley back in play sending the ball back in the trajectory of a volley. Pasarell moves in for the kill and he does...he nails the forehand pass past Gonzalez who is looking for the ball to go in the other direction. Deuce again. Gonzalez misses the first and comes in quickly on the second taking another ball off of his shoelaces on the forehand and he hits an exquisite sharp angle that Pasarell can only watch bounce twice. At advantage Gonzalez he pours another first serve in to the Pasarell backhand. Pasarell's return hangs in the air just a bit and what Gonzalez does with this ball is one of the things that made him so great. He follows the serve in one-two-three steps and perfect split just behind the service line...he senses the ball is hanging for a split second then like a panther he going for the kill his feet are a blur of quick motion. It appears to me he goes left, right, left and intercepts the hanging ball in between his next step with his right just before his foot meets the earth and with very little backswing he drives the high backhand volley deep into Pasarell's forehand corner with quite a bit of spin on it. Pasarell's reply is so weak that Gonzalez has the entire court in which to merely bunt the backhand volley for the point. Six games all.

At this point in the video you catch a glimpse of the score board. It appears to read 2-4, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3 and 6-6. But what you don't realize is that there is no 2 in front of the two scores in the first set...where Pasarell had won the first set 24-22. No tie-breakers played in 1969 at Wimbledon. Gonzalez went on to lose the second set easily and play was suspended due to darkness. Down two sets to none Gonzalez came to the court the next day with the daunting task of taking three straight from a much younger Charlie Pasarell.

At 7-8 in the fifth Gonzalez is looking at yet another match point in the face. Fortunately for him all of the seven match points were on his serve. This time he misses the first serve I the net which may have been the first serve we see in the net. But he calmly spins the second one in and does his classic one, two, three split step then the four step lightening dance with the volley he volleys deep into the backhand and Pasarell is forced to lob defensively...long. Two more first serves and Richard holds for eight games all. Gonzalez puts both hands on his knees and slumps for a moment.

Both players hold serve for nine games all and that trusty voice of the British announcer that you never get tired of informs us that the players have been on the court for two hours and forty minutes.

At nine games all we finally get to see the Charlie Pasarell service delivery. Hmmm...what modern day player does that service motion resemble? Marin Cilic? Almost a dead ringer I would say. But Charlie starts off this game with a tentative double fault in the net. On the next point he follows up with a tentative forehand volley that drifts wide. Gonzalez smelling blood and sensing the kill plays it cagey. He returns and forces Pasarell to volley twice. Charlie looks to be pretty tight at this point in the match...could he be tired? Then the wily Gonzalez lofts a lob over he head of Pasarell for a winner. He shows a bit of emotion as he pumps his arms urging himself on for a break point. He gets the return back in play down the line forcing Pasarell to move quickly and he hits yet another tentative shot missing the volley long. Gonzalez to serve for the first round marathon match at 10-9 in the fifth.

Once he smelled the finish line it was all but over. He serves out the marathon at love. Typical Richard Gonzalez...the model of my imaginary teaching paradigm. The model for his attitude as much as anything else. I made a small error in this summary of a wonderful video. Earlier I described a beautiful backhand volley that I thought was the one that I wanted to illustrate as the textbook backhand volley. Poor Dominic Thiem. If only he had access to tennisplayer.net. But take a look. At 7:18 you see Richard Gonzalez poised to finish off his opponent. He isn't wasting any time. He doesn't gift anything away. But at 30-love he misses a first serve but what he does with the second is all you can dream of. He spins the second one in and he is off to the net. One...two...three and a classic split step. The momentary pause isn't a pause at all as he is almost like a dream...a shadow. He sees the play and it is a backhand volley. Quick little bullet steps to the anticipated interception and he uses his forward momentum to cleanly place the volley behind Charlie Pasarell who is apparently looking for something short and angled. The volley at 30-love is one of the cleanest strokes you are ever going to see and the footwork is just perfect. He is in contact with the ball just before his right foot is meeting the earth. Sublime.

Moreover what is not said expressly in the video is the question of the equipment. Just take a look at the bucket of bolts the boys are using in 1969. The first of the evolutionary metal racquets. But take into consideration the Gonzalez serve and how he is meeting that ball as high as he can reach and the amount of spin he is generating. Well tennis is tennis. Or at least it was. There is this and then there is what we have today. In this short video we see a champion faced with seven match points against him and what does he do...he goes to the net and takes fate by the horns.

Thanks for the video gzhpcu...another great find. Do me a favour and find this match in its entirety. All five plus hours.

[don_budge]

The 1969 Wimbledon Men's Singles Championships

If you are familiar with all of the names in the draw for the 1969 men's championships you get a feel for the depth of the game back then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Wimbledon_Championships_–_Men%27s_Singles

[gzhpcu]

If you want the Gonzales Pasarell match on DVD, you can find it here:

[don_budge]

If you want the Gonzales Pasarell match on DVD, you can find it here:

Thanks Phil...I just ordered over five hours of Richard Gonzalez/Charlito Pasarell serve and volley classic tennis circa 1969 Wimbledon. Really excited about this one.