Vic Seixas

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, while Vic is often described as being Jewish[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], he was actually brought up Presbyterian and married in a Presbyterian church.[13] He attended and graduated from the William Penn Charter School, where he was a tennis star.[14][15][16][17]

He served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II for three years, which interrupted his tennis career.[18][3][19]

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.[18][3][19] 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][18] He graduated in 1949, the same year that UNC awarded him the Patterson Medal, the school's top medal in athletics.[20]

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 between 1940 and 1969.[21]

He was ranked in the Top Ten in the US thirteen times between 1942 and 1956.[22] 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.[23][24][25] 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.[26]

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[27]) and the US National (U.S. Open) in 1954 over Rex Hartwig.[18]

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.[18]

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.[18]

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

Seixas was a stockbroker from the late 1950s until the early 1970s.[31] 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.[32][33] 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.[34][31][4] After several years bartending and helping with the Club's front desk duties, Vic retired.

Seixas is currently the oldest living Grand Slam singles champion in the world, and the oldest living member of the Tennis Hall of Fame.[35][36]

• List of select Jewish tennis players

• 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