Goodbye & Hello

On a concrete court at the Los Angeles Tennis Club this week, 21-year-old Pancho Gonzales faced Ted Schroeder for the last time. With less difficulty than he had in the finals of the National Singles at Forest Hills, Amateur Champion Gonzales dusted off his old enemy (6-3, 9-11, 8-6, 6-4) to win the Pacific Southwest Championship. Then he hopped a plane for Manhattan.

All that stood between Gonzales' goodbye to amateur tennis and his hello to the pros was his signature on a ready & waiting contract. Next month, Pancho is scheduled to begin a professional tour in Madison Square Garden with Big Jake Kramer as his opponent and little Bobby Riggs (who plans to be just a part-time player) as promoter. The deal calls for Pancho to pocket 30% of the gate, against Kramer's 25%. The $50,000 or so he expects to make in one quick shot dwarfs any amount he could make in years of wrangling and ducking behind doors as an expense-account amateur. All set to follow Pancho's lead is poker-faced Frank Parker, ranked No. 3, whose prospective opponent for this fall's tour is Francisco Segura. That will leave Ted Schroeder, who says he will never turn pro, to hold the U.S. amateur fort almost alone--at least until the California tennis factories turn out some new models.

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