Born into a Mexican American family, Gonzales as a youth had no access to tennis clubs and was largely a self-taught player. In 1943 he achieved top ranking in boys’ tennis in southern California. Before turning professional in 1949, he won six major amateur championships: United States Lawn Tennis Association singles (1948–49), U.S. clay-court singles (1948–49), U.S. indoor singles (1949), and U.S. indoor mixed doubles (1949, with Gussie Moran). His speed, agility, and aggressive play, which was complemented by colourful and outspoken behaviour, won him a large following. In addition to his eight singles titles, Gonzales as a professional won the U.S. men’s doubles championship five times (1953–54, 1957–58, and 1969, with various partners). In 1969, at age 41, he defeated Charlie Pasarell in a 112-game match that was the longest in the history of the Wimbledon tournament.
In late 1955 and early 1956 Gonzales beat the athletic Tony Trabert by 74 matches to 27, a series made more compelling by the fact that the two players disliked each other intensely. At the end of 1956 Kramer signed Ken Rosewall to play another long series against Gonzales. In early 1957 Gonzales flew to Australia for the first 10 matches against Rosewall in his native country. Gonzales had developed a "half-dollar"-size cyst on the palm on his right hand and there was speculation in the newspapers that his tennis career might be over. Kramer's personal physician began to treat it with injections, and it gradually began to shrink. It was still painful, however, when Gonzales beat Rosewall in their initial match and eventually won their brief Australian tour 7 matches to 3, with Rosewall beating Gonzales in a tournament whose results did not count towards the series total. By the time the tour opened in New York in late February, the cyst had shrunk considerably and Gonzales went on to beat Rosewall by a final score of 50 matches to 26.
Kramer has written that he was so worried that Rosewall would offer no competition to Gonzales and would thereby destroy the financial success of the tour that, for the only time in his career as a player or promoter, he asked Gonzales while in Australia to "carry" Rosewall in return for having his share of the gross receipts raised from 20 percent to 25 percent. Gonzales reluctantly agreed. After 4 matches, with Gonzales ahead 3 to 1, Gonzales came to Kramer to say that "I can't play when I'm thinking about trying to carry the kid. I can't concentrate. It just bothers me too much." By this time, however, it was apparent that Rosewall would be fully competitive with Gonzales, so Kramer told Gonzales to return to his normal game — and that he could keep his additional 5 percent.
Later that year, Gonzales sued in California superior court to have his 7-year contract with Kramer declared invalid. As proof of his claim, Gonzales cited being paid 25 percent of the gate instead of the stipulated 20 percent. Judge Leon T. David found Gonzales's reasoning implausible and ruled in favor of Kramer. Gonzales remained bound to Kramer by contract until 1960."
