Vic Seixas

Vic Seixas

Seixas in 1954
Full name	Elias Victor Seixas Jr.
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1923-08-30) August 30, 1923 Philadelphia, United States
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	1940
Retired	1970
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HoF	1971 (member page)
Singles
Career record	801-236 (77.2%) [1]
Career titles	49 [1]
Highest ranking	No. 3 (ITHF)[2]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1953)
French Open	F (1953)
Wimbledon	W (1953)
US Open	W (1954)
Doubles
Career record	4–9
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1955)
French Open	W (1954, 1955)
Wimbledon	F (1952, 1954)
US Open	W (1952, 1954)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open	W (1953)
Wimbledon	W (1953, 1954, 1955, 1956)
US Open	W (1953, 1954, 1955)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (1954)

Elias Victor Seixas Jr. (/ˈseɪʃəs/; pronounced SAY-shus;^[3] born August 30, 1923)^[4] is an American former tennis player.

Thirteen times he was ranked in the Top Ten in the US between 1942 and 1956. In 1951 Seixas was ranked No. 4 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, and was also cited as being the World No. 1 in the Reading Eagle newspaper the same year.

In his career he 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 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Anna Victoria (Moon), who was of Irish descent, and Elias Victor Seixas Sr., who was born in Brazil, of Portuguese Sephardi Jewish ancestry, and is Jewish.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]} He attended and graduated from the William Penn Charter School, where he was a tennis star.^{[13][14][15][16]}

He served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II for three years, which interrupted his tennis career.^[17][3][18]

He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he was a member of Alpha Sigma of the Chi Psi fraternity.^[17][3][18] 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][17] He graduated in 1949, the same year that UNC awarded him the Patterson Medal, the school's top medal in athletics.^[19]

Tennis career

In a very long career, Seixas won scores of singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles. He entered the US Championships men's singles a record 28 times between 1940 and 1969.^[20]

Thirteen times he was ranked in the Top Ten in the US between 1942 and 1956.^[21] 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.^[22][23][24] In 1953, Seixas was ranked No. 3 in the world by Lance Tingay, and was also cited as being the World No. 1 in the Reading Eagle newspaper the same year.^[25]

His major singles wins include Wimbledon in 1953 over Kurt Nielsen, and the US National (U.S. Open) in 1954 over Rex Hartwig.^[17]

He was also a successful doubles and mixed doubles player. In 1952 he won the US National doubles with Mervyn Rose. In the mid-fifties 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 1953–56, the first three with Doris Hart and the fourth with Shirley Fry; the US National mixed doubles from 1953–55, all with Doris Hart; and the French Championships mixed doubles in 1953, with Doris Hart.^[17]

In 1966 at 42 years of age, he 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.^[17]

That same year, Seixas was rated as the Senior Squash Champion of America.

After tennis retirement

Seixas was a stockbroker from the late 1950s until the early 1970s.^[29] Afterwards, he worked as a tennis director for the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and at a Hilton Hotel in New Orleans.^[30][31] 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). In 1998, unable to play tennis any longer due to his knees, he chose to become a bartender.^[32][29][4]

He is currently the oldest living male Grand Slam singles champion.^[33]

Grand Slam finals

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

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1951	U.S. Championships	Grass	Frank Sedgman	6–4, 6–1, 6–1
Runner-up	1953	French Championships	Clay	Ken Rosewall	6–3, 6–4, 1–6, 6–2
Winner	1953	Wimbledon	Grass	Kurt Nielsen	9–7, 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1953	U.S. Championships	Grass	Tony Trabert	6–3, 6–2, 6–3
Winner	1954	U.S. Championships	Grass	Rex Hartwig	3–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4

Men's doubles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1952	Wimbledon	Grass	Eric Sturgess	Ken McGregor Frank Sedgman	6–3, 7–5, 6–4
Winner	1952	U.S. Championships	Grass	Mervyn Rose	Ken McGregor Frank Sedgman	3–6, 10–8, 10–8, 6–8, 8–6
Winner	1954	French Championships	Clay	Tony Trabert	Lew Hoad Ken Rosewall	6–4, 6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	1954	Wimbledon	Grass	Tony Trabert	Rex Hartwig Mervyn Rose	6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4
Winner	1954	U.S. Championships	Grass	Tony Trabert	Lew Hoad Ken Rosewall	3–6, 6–4, 8–6, 6–3
Winner	1955	Australian Championships	Grass	Tony Trabert	Lew Hoad Ken Rosewall	6–3, 6–2, 2–6, 3–6, 6–1
Winner	1955	French Championships	Clay	Tony Trabert	Nicola Pietrangeli Orlando Sirola	6–1, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	1956	U.S. Championships	Grass	Ham Richardson	Lew Hoad Ken Rosewall	6–2, 6–2, 3–6, 6–4

Grand Slam performance timeline

See also

• List of select Jewish tennis players

References

External links

• Vic Seixas at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Vic Seixas at the International Tennis Federation
• Vic Seixas at the Davis Cup
• Vic Seixas at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Prominent members of Chi Psi