Pancho Segura will sign copies of his biography,Little Pancho: The Life of Tennis Legend Pancho Segura today at the U.S. Open. The University of Nebraska Press published Little Pancho, written by Caroline Seebohm, earlier this year.
Pancho Segura has lived the life that feel-good sports movies are made of. He was born to a poor Ecuadorian family and was malnourished and sickly as a child. However, his father was a caretaker at a tennis club, so he was exposed to the sport early in his life. And even though he small and weak, he took to the sport right away.
Through hard work and many, many instances of good luck (it didn’t hurt that Pancho grew into a handsome and charming teenager) Pancho secured a place on the tennis team at the University of Miami, where he won three consecutive NCAA championships (still a record). Shortly thereafter, he turned pro, and was among the first professional tennis player to tour the U.S. and the world. It was a rough life back then: Segura and his fellow players struggled to earn a living and find acceptance in the traditional, sometimes elitist tennis world, which scorned “professionals” as outcasts. Later in his life, he became a coach at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, working with movie stars such as Charlton Heston, Barbra Streisand, and Lauren Bacall, and future pros, including Jimmy Connors.
Segura, for sure, led a varied and full life. And he still loves tennis.
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