Vic Seixas

Vic Seixas
Seixas in 1954
Full nameElias Victor Seixas Jr.
Country (sports) United States
Born(1923-08-30)August 30, 1923
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJuly 5, 2024(2024-07-05) (aged 100)
Mill Valley, California, U.S.
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Retired1970
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HoF1971 (member page)
Singles
Career record801–236 (77.2%) [1]
Career titles49 [1]
Highest rankingNo. 1 (1954, Harry Hopman)[2]
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenSF (1953)
French OpenF (1953)
WimbledonW (1953)
US OpenW (1954)
Doubles
Career record4–9
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenW (1955)
French OpenW (1954, 1955)
WimbledonF (1952, 1954)
US OpenW (1952, 1954)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
French OpenW (1953)
WimbledonW (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956)
US OpenW (1953, 1954, 1955)
Team competitions
Davis CupW (1954)

Elias Victor Seixas Jr. (/ˈseɪʃəs/ SAY-shəs;[3][4] August 30, 1923 – July 5, 2024) was an American tennis player.

Seixas was ranked in the top ten in the U.S. on 13 occasions from 1942 to 1956. In 1951, Seixas was ranked No. 4 amateur in the world, two spots below Dick Savitt, while he was No. 1 in the U.S. ranking, one spot ahead of Savitt. In 1953, Seixas was ranked No. 3 in the world by Lance Tingay. In 1954, Seixas was ranked amateur number one by Harry Hopman.[5]

In his career, Seixas won 15 Major championships. He won both Wimbledon and the US Open in singles. He also won the Australian Open, French Open (twice), and US Open (twice) in doubles, and the French Open, Wimbledon (four times), and US Open (three times) in mixed doubles.

Seixas was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic Hall of Fame, the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, and the Southern Conference Hall of Fame.

Early life

Seixas was born on August 30, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[6] to Anna Victoria (née Moon), who was of Irish descent, and Elias Victor Seixas, who was born in the Dominican Republic,[7] of Dutch-Jewish descent. He is reported to have been Jewish by a number of sources,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] but was raised Presbyterian.[15] He attended and graduated from the William Penn Charter School, where he was a tennis star.[16][17][18][19]

Seixas served as a pilot in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II for three years, which interrupted his tennis career.[20][3][21] He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of Alpha Sigma chapter of the Chi Psi fraternity.[20][3][21] He was 63–3 at UNC, won the Southern Conference singles championship in 1948 and the doubles championship in 1949, and was an All-American.[3][20] He graduated in 1949, the same year that UNC awarded him the Patterson Medal, the school's top medal in athletics.[22]

Tennis career

During the course of his lengthy career, Seixas won scores of singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles. He entered the US Championships men's singles a record 28 times from 1940 to 1969.[23]

Seixas was ranked in the top ten in the US 13 times from 1942 to 1956.[24] In 1951, Seixas was ranked No. 4 in the world, two spots below Dick Savitt, while he was No. 1 in the US ranking (a ranking he also held in 1954 and 1957), one spot ahead of Savitt.[25][26][27] In 1953, Seixas was ranked No. 3 in the world by Lance Tingay and was cited as being the world No. 1 in the Reading Eagle the same year.[28]

His major singles wins include Wimbledon in 1953 over Kurt Nielsen (where his 'cash' winnings was a £25 certificate to spend at a shop in Piccadilly Circus[29]) and the US National (U.S. Open) in 1954 over Rex Hartwig.[20]

Seixas was also a successful doubles and mixed doubles player. In 1952, he won the US National doubles with Mervyn Rose. In the mid-1950s, he formed a successful partnership with Tony Trabert, winning the 1954 French and US Championships, as well as the 1955 Australian and French Championships. Additionally, they won the decisive third point in the 1954 Davis Cup win over Australia. Seixas won four consecutive mixed doubles crowns at Wimbledon from 1953 to 1956, the first three with Doris Hart and the fourth with Shirley Fry; the US National mixed doubles from 1953 to 1955, all with Doris Hart; and the French Championships mixed doubles in 1953 with Doris Hart.[20]

In 1966, at 42 years of age, Seixas played 94 games over four hours to defeat 22-year old Australian Bill Bowrey, 32–34, 6–4, 10–8 at the 1966 Philadelphia Grass Championship.[20]

Davis Cup

Seixas and Trabert won the Davis Cup in 1954, against Australia. Seixas is rated fifth in the category of most Davis Cup Singles matches (24), just behind Bill Tilden (25) and Arthur Ashe (27). He served three times as Captain of the US Davis Cup team. He was 38–17 lifetime in Davis Cup matches.[30]

Halls of Fame

Seixas was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.[31] He was also inducted into the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic Hall of Fame.[32]

Seixas was inducted into Class II of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He was inducted into the Southern Conference Hall of Fame in 2011.[3]

After tennis retirement

Seixas was a stockbroker from the late 1950s until the early 1970s.[33] Afterward, he worked as a tennis director for the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and at a Hilton Hotel in New Orleans.[34][35]

He moved to California in 1989, where he lived in Mill Valley[3] and established a tennis program at the Harbor Point Racquet and Beach Club in Mill Valley (Marin County), now known as The Club at Harbor Point. In 1998, unable to play tennis any longer due to his knees, he chose to become a bartender at Harbor Point.[36][33][4] After several years bartending and helping with the club's front desk duties, he retired.

Seixas was the oldest living Grand Slam singles champion in the world, and the oldest living member of the Tennis Hall of Fame,[29][37] having turned 100 on August 30, 2023.[38][39]

Seixas died at his home in Mill Valley on July 5, 2024, at the age of 100.[40][6][41][42]

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runners-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1951 U.S. Championships Grass Australia Frank Sedgman 4–6, 1–6, 1–6
Loss 1953 French Championships Clay Australia Ken Rosewall 3–6, 4–6, 6–1, 2–6
Win 1953 Wimbledon Grass Denmark Kurt Nielsen 9–7, 6–3, 6–4
Loss 1953 U.S. Championships Grass United States Tony Trabert 3–6, 2–6, 3–6
Win 1954 U.S. Championships Grass Australia Rex Hartwig 3–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4

Doubles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runners-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1952 Wimbledon Grass South Africa Eric Sturgess Australia Ken McGregor
Australia Frank Sedgman		 3–6, 5–7, 4–6
Win 1952 U.S. Championships Grass Australia Mervyn Rose Australia Ken McGregor
Australia Frank Sedgman		 3–6, 10–8, 10–8, 6–8, 8–6
Win 1954 French Championships Clay United States Tony Trabert Australia Lew Hoad
Australia Ken Rosewall		 6–4, 6–2, 6–1
Loss 1954 Wimbledon Grass United States Tony Trabert Australia Rex Hartwig
Australia Mervyn Rose		 4–6, 4–6, 6–3, 4–6
Win 1954 U.S. Championships Grass United States Tony Trabert Australia Lew Hoad
Australia Ken Rosewall		 3–6, 6–4, 8–6, 6–3
Win 1955 Australian Championships Grass United States Tony Trabert Australia Lew Hoad
Australia Ken Rosewall		 6–3, 6–2, 2–6, 3–6, 6–1
Win 1955 French Championships Clay United States Tony Trabert Italy Nicola Pietrangeli
Italy Orlando Sirola		 6–1, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
Loss 1956 U.S. Championships Grass United States Ham Richardson Australia Lew Hoad
Australia Ken Rosewall		 2–6, 2–6, 6–3, 4–6

Mixed doubles: 8 (8 titles)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1953 French Championships Clay United States Doris Hart United States Maureen Connolly
Australia Mervyn Rose		 4–6, 6–4, 6–0
Win 1953 Wimbledon Grass United States Doris Hart United States Shirley Fry
Argentina Enrique Morea		 9–7, 7–5
Win 1953 U.S. Championships Grass United States Doris Hart United States Julia Sampson
Australia Rex Hartwig		 6–2, 4–6, 6–4
Win 1954 Wimbledon Grass United States Doris Hart United States Margaret duPont
Australia Ken Rosewall		 5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Win 1954 U.S. Championships Grass United States Doris Hart United States Margaret duPont
Australia Ken Rosewall		 4–6, 6–1, 6–1
Win 1955 Wimbledon Grass United States Doris Hart United States Louise Brough
Argentina Enrique Morea		 8–6, 2–6, 6–3
Win 1955 U.S. Championships Grass United States Doris Hart United States Shirley Fry
Australia Lew Hoad		 9–7, 6–1
Win 1956 Wimbledon Grass United States Shirley Fry United States Gardnar Mulloy
United States Althea Gibson		 2–6, 6–2, 7–5

Grand Slam performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
Tournament 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 SR W–L Win %
Australian Open A A A A A A A A A A A A A SF QF QF A A A A A A A A A A A A A A 0 / 3 7–3 70.0
French Open A A A A A A A A A A QF A A F QF QF A A A A A A A A A A A A A A 0 / 4 16–4 80.0
Wimbledon A A A A A A A A A A SF A QF W QF 2R SF QF A A A A A A A A A 2R A 1R 1 / 9 31–8 79.5
US Open 3R 3R 2R A 2R A 3R 4R 4R 1R 3R F 4R F W SF SF QF QF 4R 4R 3R 4R 3R 4R 4R 2R 2R 2R 1R 1 / 28 75–27 73.5
Win–loss 1–1 2–1 1–1 0–0 1–1 0–0 1–1 3–1 3–1 0–1 11–3 6–1 7–2 22–3 16–3 10–4 10–2 8–2 4–1 3–1 3–1 2–1 3–1 2–1 3–1 3–1 1–1 2–2 1–1 0–2 2 / 44 129–42 75.4

See also

References

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