Pancho Segura, who rose from poverty to win six US Pro singles and doubles championships and was one of the world’s top amateur players in the 1940s and professionals in the 1950s, has died. He was 96.

Segura died Saturday from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, his son Spencer Segura said on Sunday.

Segura went from amateur to barnstorming pro as a player, then became a coach, including of Jimmy Connors.

“Sad day — lost my friend-coach – and mentor… ,” Connors — an eight-time major singles champion — posted on Twitter.

Francisco Olegario Segura was born into poverty in Ecuador.

Childhood rickets bowed his legs. Too weak for soccer, he took to tennis while working as a ball boy at a club in Guayaquil.

“I taught myself how to play,” Segura told ESPN in 2009.

“And I worked at it, day after day, for hours, hitting on the backboard, begging people to play a little bit with me.”

Although he stood only five feet, six inches, Segura held his own against larger and more powerful opponents. He had a unique and devastating two-handed forehand.

“I was a fighter, a killer. I hated to lose to anyone. My concentration was so intense. I could do anything with the ball,” Segura told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 1987.

He also gained the reputation as a master strategist.

“You need to understand things like your opponent’s grips, his movement, which shots he can hit and which shots he can’t,” Segura told ESPN.

Successful in the college and amateur ranks, Segura turned professional to make a living in 1947, about two decades before pro players were admitted to Grand Slam tournaments.

“I played on islands that were specks in the Indian Ocean,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1991.

“I played for the sheikh of Kuwait, and I played at midnight in Madrid for $1,000. Errol Flynn used to send a car to pick me up.”