(ConserativeSense.com) – A tennis legend who lived to be a century old died just shy of his 101st birthday, leaving behind a decades-long legacy.
Before his death on Friday, July 5, Vic Seixas was the oldest Grand Slam champion alive and considered by many to be one of the best tennis players who ever lived. The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced Seixas’s death, stating in their statement that “from 1940 to 1968,” the legend was “the face of American tennis.”
Harry Hopman, one of Australia’s greatest tennis players, regarded Seixas as 1954’s number one amateur player after Seixas beat Australian player Rex Hartwig in that year’s US Nationals singles final.
In the 1950s, Seixas conquered 15 Grand Slam tournaments. He stood at 6’1” and weighed 180 pounds and became known for his endurance on the field and extraordinary conditioning. Although he spent his career as an amateur, he collected 56 singles titles before retiring from tournaments in 1970, although he continued to participate in senior matches.
Seixas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 30, 1923. He would have been 101 years old next month. The tennis legend was of Irish heritage. His father ran a plumbing supply company and also played tennis, which is how Seixas was introduced to the game. He played his first US Nationals at 17 while still in high school and went on to play in college at the University of North Carolina. Seixas was also a World War II veteran and served in the Army Air Forces as a pilot.
Seixas remained amateur and viewed tennis as a part-time pursuit, expecting to take over his father’s company. He ended up instead working as a Philadelphia stockbroker for several decades, and then went on to teach tennis in New Orleans and then in San Francisco, where he moved in 1989 and started a tennis club in Marin County until he reached his mid-80s and health no longer permitted.
In his 90s, the tennis player required full-time care. Friends of Seixas started a GoFundMe in 2022 to raise money for him until the sportswear company Adidas found out and offered to sign Seixas as one of their ambassadors. They generously paid him $2,000 a month to cover his care expenses.
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