Indoors & Out

Next to eating Mexican food, the thing California-born Richard A. Gonzales probably enjoys more than anything else is taking life easy. When the mood hits him, "Pancho" plays tennis, but he is not the man to fret long hours over improving his backhand, or his serve, or his volley. Says he: "I just want my whole game to get better all over." At 20, strapping (6 ft. 2 in., 195 Ibs.) Pancho is the most thoroughly unstudied champion ever to win the U.S. National singles crown.

In Manhattan last week, Pancho experimented with something new. He played tennis on the slick, wooden floor of the 7th Regiment Armory for the National Indoor Championship. Neither the strange surface nor the deceptive lighting unsettled him; he breezed easily through the early rounds. What annoyed him was the fact that he couldn't get enough sleep. "It isn't the tennis matches," he explained carefully, "just New York. It keeps me awake."

The morning of the semifinals, Gonzales awoke with his left ankle sore and swollen. He paid no attention to it, waded through ex-National Singles Champion Don Mc-Neill, 4-6, 6-4, 9-7, 6-3.

In the finals, he squared off against Defending Indoor Champion Billy Talbert, ranked No. 4 in the national ratings but No. 1 on boards. When Pancho's big service was booming in, about all Talbert could do was wave at it. Talbert went down (10-8, 6-0, 4-6, 9-7).

As the game's brightest young star, Pancho is now eligible for becks & nods from the social set that patronizes big-time tennis. "But," says he: "I don't drink cocktails--just beer." Besides, the food at fancy parties does not appeal to Pancho's cast-iron stomach, which thrives on beans (with or without chili and cheese) and tortillas.

Like Jake Kramer (now a pro), Pancho's game is built on power and a big serve. Otherwise, nobody is sure until the match begins just what his game will be like. Says Pancho himself: "Sometimes my forehand is my weakness, sometimes my backhand. It all depends on how I'm feeling that day."

In the women's indoor championships, California's bouncy 25-year-old Gertrude ("Gussie") Moran took the court for the finals against fellow Californian Nancy Chaffee. Gussie was out to prove that her strong semifinals play against National Champion Margaret Osborne du Pont at Forest Hills last September was no fluke. She did; hitting a powerful ball, she made it a 35-minute match, 6-2, 6-3.

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