Charlie Pasarell helped break open professional tennis, built one of the sport's biggest tournaments from near-nothing, and roomed with Arthur Ashe at UCLA. Now the 82-year-old Rancho Santa Fe resident has put it all in a book.

"Serving First," co-written with tennis historian Joel Drucker, launched Aug. 19. Pasarell, an International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, recounts a career that stretched from Puerto Rico courts at age 6 to the boardrooms where modern professional tennis was born.

Pasarell told The Coast News that tennis took him places he never imagined, bringing people and opportunities he never envisioned when he first picked up a racket.

The numbers back up the story. Pasarell was the No. 1-ranked American player in 1967. He won the NCAA singles and doubles titles at UCLA in 1966. He played on the U.S. Davis Cup team for five years, including the 1968 championship squad. He won 53 combined singles and doubles titles across his career, according to the U.S. Tennis Association.

Then there was the 1969 Wimbledon match against Pancho Gonzales. Gonzales won 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9 in five hours and 12 minutes. It stood as the longest match in Wimbledon history by games played until 2010.

Off the court

Pasarell's influence extended well beyond his playing days. He co-founded the National Junior Tennis and Learning network alongside Ashe and Sheridan Snyder in 1969, a program that now provides free or low-cost tennis and education to more than 160,000 under-resourced youths per year, according to the USTA.

He also helped found the Association of Tennis Professionals in 1972 alongside Donald Dell, Jack Kramer and Cliff Drysdale. The 1973 Wimbledon boycott, when players refused to compete, gave the fledgling union real leverage.

"Everything before that was a concept," Pasarell said. "But the Wimbledon boycott in 1973 was when the players stood together and said, 'No, we have a voice, and we did.'"

Building Indian Wells

In 1981, Pasarell took over as tournament director of the Indian Wells event, which was struggling and in danger of being moved out of the region. Over three decades, he and partner Ray Moore grew attendance from 30,000 to more than 370,000 and expanded the TV broadcast from 25 million homes to more than one billion worldwide, according to the ATP Tour.

In 2000, Pasarell and Moore opened the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, a 54-acre complex with a 16,100-seat main stadium. The BNP Paribas Open is now known as the "fifth major," the largest two-week combined men's and women's tournament in the world.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison became the tournament's new owner in 2010. Pasarell departed in 2012 after more than 30 years shaping the event.

Jeanne Ashe, Arthur's widow, wrote in the book: "Charlie and Arthur had a pure friendship, based on trust and love. (And) Charlie's heart is the spark that brings this great tale to life."