Elias Victor Seixas, Jr. “Vic”
Born: August 30, 1923
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1971
Grand Slam Record
Wimbledon Singles 1953
Doubles finalist 1952, 54
Mixed 1953-56
French Singles finalist 1953
Doubles 1954-55
Mixed 1953
U.S. Singles 1954
Singles finalist 1951, 53
Doubles 1952, 54
Doubles finalist 1956
Mixed 1953-55
Australian Doubles 1955
Tournament Record
Davis Cup Team Member 1951-57
Captain 1952, 1957, 1964
Italian Doubles finalist 1954
Mixed 1953, 54
When Vic Seixas played–and won–the fifth-longest singles match in tennis history, he was 42. That was in 1966, when Vic went 94 games to beat a 22-year-old Australian Davis Cup player, Bill Bowrey, 32-34, 6-4, 10-8, during the Pennsylvania Grass Championships at Philadelphia. It took nearly four hours.
Elias Victor Seixas, Jr., born August 30, 1923, in Philadelphia, played the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills a record 28 times between 1940 and 1969, winning the singles in 1954 over Rex Hartwig, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. He played more Davis Cup matches than any other American, until John McEnroe, winning 38 of 55 singles and doubles encounters during his seven years on the team between 1951 and 1957. Thirteen times he was ranked in the Top Ten in the U.S. between 1942 and 1966, setting an American longevity record of a 24-year span between his first and last entries (later equaled by Pancho Gonzalez, 1948-72).
In 1953, when Seixas won the Wimbledon singles over Kurt Nielsen, 9-7, 6-3, 6-4, and led the U.S. to the Davis Cup Final, he was considered No. 3 in the amateur world, his high point.
Although he helped the U.S. attain the finale every year he played Davis Cup, the team could win only once, the high spot of 1954 when he and Tony Trabert were victorious. After Trabert opened with a win over Lew Hoad, Seixas followed with a stunning 8-6, 6-8, 6-4, 6-3 triumph over his nemesis, Ken Rosewall. That put the U.S. ahead, 2-0, on the first day, and Seixas and Trabert clinched the Cup the following day with a doubles victory over Hoad and Rex Hartwig, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8, before a record outdoor crowd of 25,578 at Sydney.
Seixas won 15 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed, setting a Wimbledon record by winning the mixed four successive years, 1953, 1954, 1955 with Doris Hart, and 1956 with Shirley Fry.
Among his 13 U.S. titles were the Clay Court singles in 1953 and 1957, the Hard Court doubles (with Ted Schroeder) in 1948, and the Indoor doubles (with Trabert) in 1955, making Seixas one of the few to win national titles on all four surfaces. In 1971 he was named to the Hall of Fame.
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound right-handed Seixas was an attacker who won more on determination and conditioning than on outstanding form. His volleying was exceptional, and he had an excellent match temperament, but a thrashing topspin forehand and sliced backhand were utilitarian. His career was interrupted for three years by World War II, during which he served as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force. He graduated from the University of North Carolina. Seixas was one of the few extraordinary amateurs who did not join the pro tour, winning 56 singles titles. Eventually, though, after the age of 50, he did become a pro to compete on the Grand Masters circuit.
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