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Two inducted into USPTA’s Hall of Fame

Doris Hart and Francisco “Pancho” Segura were inducted into the USPTA Hall of Fame during its annual awards breakfast, Sept. 19 at the USPTA World Conference on Tennis held at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa in Monterey, Calif. Hart, who resides in Coral Gables, Fla., has been a USPTA Pro 1 since 1955. Segura, who resides in Carlsbad, Calif., has been a USPTA Pro 1 since 1946. Both join only 11 others as grand inductees in the USPTA Hall of Fame.

Doris Hart was born June 20, 1925, in St. Louis, Mo. She won 35 Grand Slam titles during her career. Six of her titles were in women’s singles, 14 in women’s doubles, and 15 in mixed doubles.

Hart is one of three players, all women, to have a “boxed set” of Grand Slam titles - every possible title (singles, same-sex doubles, and mixed doubles) from all four Grand Slam events. The others are Margaret Court and Martina Navratilova. Hart won nine consecutive Grand Slam women’s doubles titles from 1951 through 1953, with her streak of 43 consecutive match wins in Grand Slam women’s doubles tournaments finally ending in the 1954 Wimbledon final.

Hart retired from the tour in 1955 — the same year she joined USPTA — to become a tennis-teaching professional. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969. She is the first woman inducted into USPTA’s Hall of Fame. She lives in Coral Gables, Fla.

Pancho Segura, born on June 20, 1921, is a former leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and a professional. In 1950 and 1952, he was the World Co-No. 1 player. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but moved to the United States in the late 1930s. He is the only player to have won the U.S. Pro Tennis Championship title on three different surfaces (which he did consecutively from 1950-1952).

After retiring from the tour, Segura became a teaching professional for many years in Southern California. He joined USPTA in 1946, and was widely credited with helping develop the young Jimmy Connors. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984.

In 1993, USPTA’s Executive Committee, in acknowledgment of his positive impact on the sport of tennis, and his previous 47 years of devoted service as a P-1 member, voted to award Segura the distinction of honorary membership in USPTA. He lives in Carlsbad, Calif.

Posted on September 25, 2012
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