Guillermo Vilas

Guillermo Vilas

Guillermo Vilas in 1975
Country (sports)  Argentina
Residence Buenos Aires, Argentina
Born (1952-08-17) 17 August 1952
Mar del Plata, Argentina
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro 1969[1]
Retired 1992
Plays Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money US$ 4,923,882
Int. Tennis HoF 1991 (member page)
Singles
Career record 929–286 (76.4%)
Career titles 62 (ATP)
Highest ranking No. 2 (30 April 1975)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open W (1978, 1979)
French Open W (1977)
Wimbledon QF (1975, 1976)
US Open W (1977)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals W (1974)
WCT Finals F (1976)
Doubles
Career record 217–150
Career titles 16
Highest ranking No. 13 (21 May 1979)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 2R (1977Jan)
French Open SF (1975)
Wimbledon 3R (1976)
US Open QF (1975)
Vilas celebrating his win at the 1977 French Open.
Guillermo Vilas at the 1974 Dutch Open

Guillermo Vilas (Spanish pronunciation: [ɣiˈʃe̞ɾmo ˈʋiläs]; born 17 August 1952) is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina, N°1 of the Grand Prix tennis circuit's Season in 1974, 1975 and 1977, who won four majors, one Master and 62 ATP titles. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. Known for his prolific match play, especially on clay, he became the second man to win more than 900 matches in the Open Era, and his number of match wins on clay are by far the most of the Era. His peak was the 1977 season during which he won two major titles (both on clay), had two long match win streaks of 46 all-surface and 53 on clay, and finished with an Open Era record of match wins. In 2005, Tennis magazine ranked him as the 15th-best male player of the preceding 40 years. He also popularized the between-the-legs tweener shot, also known as the "Gran Willy" in his honor.

Career

Raised in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, Vilas was a southpaw and played his first tour event in 1969. He was in the year-ending top ten from 1974 through 1982. He was a clay-court specialist but also played well on hard, grass, and carpet surfaces.

He won four Grand Slam titles: the 1977 French Open and the 1977 US Open (both played on clay) and the 1978 and 1979 Australian Open (both played on grass). He was also the runner-up at the French Open three times (1975, 1978, and 1982) and at the Australian Open once (January 1977).

In 1974 he won the year end Masters Grand Prix title. In addition he won seven Grand Prix Super Series titles (1975–80) the precursors to the current Masters 1000.

Best year

A left-handed baseliner, Vilas's best year on tour was 1977 when he won two of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments and 16 of the 31 Association of Tennis Professionals tournaments he entered.[2] His playing record for 1977 was 130 wins against 15 losses. Not including the Masters year-end championship, he won 72 of his last 73 ATP matches in 1977. The highest point during this phenomenal run was winning the last US Open played at Forest Hills against Jimmy Connors 2–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–4), 6–0 in a match where Vilas surprised his American rival by attacking the net.[3][4]

Winning streak, most titles in a single year

In 1977 he won seven consecutive titles after Wimbledon—Kitzbühel (clay), Washington (clay), Louisville (clay), South Orange (clay), Columbus (clay), US Open (clay) and Paris (clay)—and set up a 46-match all-surface winning streak, third all-time behind Björn Borg's records of 49 and 48 consecutive matches won. He also had a record 53-match winning streak on clay courts, which stood until the record was broken by Rafael Nadal in 2006. Both his winning streaks were terminated in October 1977 by Ilie Năstase in the final of the Aix-en-Provence tournament. In that best of five-set final, Vilas dropped the first two sets by 6–1, 7–5 and then retired in protest of Năstase's use of a spaghetti strung racquet (which was banned shortly after by the ATP).[5] After that he won a further 28 matches in a row with titles at Tehran, Bogotá, Santiago, Buenos Aires (all on clay) and Johannesburg (hard). That run was ended in the Masters semi-finals by Björn Borg.

ATP Ranking No. 1 controversy

Even though he won 16 ATP singles titles, including the French Open and the US Open and was the runner-up at the January edition of the Australian Open in 1977, Vilas was never ranked by the ATP as World No. 1 during 1977 which was due to the fact that the rankings at the time were based on the average of a player's results.[6] He was instead year-end World No. 2, behind Jimmy Connors (who won the Masters and six other titles and was the runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1977).[7] Argentine journalist Eduardo Puppo and Romanian mathematician Marian Ciulpan[8] investigated Vilas' tournament records and came to the conclusion that Vilas should have been ranked No. 1 for five weeks in 1975 as well as during the first two weeks of 1976 and handed over their research to the ATP at the end of 2014. In May 2015 the ATP announced it had decided not to grant Vilas the No. 1 position because it happened in the interval between the publication of the official rankings.[6]

Retirement

Vilas retired from the ATP tour in 1989 but still played ATP Challenger Series until 1992.[9] He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991.[3] Vilas was in the stands at Flushing Meadows to cheer on his countryman, Juan Martín del Potro, who beat Roger Federer in an upset in the 2009 US Open final.[10]

Distinctions

Career statistics

Singles performance timeline

Tournament19701971197219731974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989SRW–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open[lower-alpha 1] A A A A A A A F A W W SF 3R A A A A NH A A A 2 / 5 23–3
French Open A A 3R[11] 3R 3R F QF W F QF QF 4R F QF 1R 2R QF 2R 2R 1R 1 / 18 58–17
Wimbledon 1R A 1R A 3R QF QF 3R 3R 2R A 1R A 1R A A 1R A A A 0 / 11 15–11
US Open A A 2R 1R 4R SF SF W 4R 4R 4R 4R SF 3R 3R 2R 1R A A A 1 / 15 43–14
Win–Loss 0–1 0–0 5–3 2–2 7–3 15–3 13–3 21–2 17–3 14–3 10–3 8–4 11–2 6–3 2–2 2–2 4–3 1–1 1–1 0–1 4 / 49 139–45
Year-end ranking – – – 31 5 2 6 2 3 6 4 4 4 11 28 39 22 71 126 408
Year-End Championship
Masters A A A A W SF SF SF[lower-alpha 2] A RR[lower-alpha 2] RR[lower-alpha 2] RR[lower-alpha 2] SF[lower-alpha 2] A A A A A A A 1 / 8 16–11

Grand Slam finals: 8 (4 titles, 4 runners-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up1975French OpenClay Sweden Björn Borg2–6, 3–6, 4–6
Runner-up1977Australian OpenGrass United States Roscoe Tanner3–6, 3–6, 3–6
Winner1977French OpenClay United States Brian Gottfried6–0, 6–3, 6–0
Winner1977US OpenClay United States Jimmy Connors2–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–4), 6–0
Runner-up1978French Open (2)Clay Sweden Björn Borg1–6, 1–6, 3–6
Winner1978Australian OpenGrass Australia John Marks6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Winner1979Australian Open (2)Grass United States John Sadri7–6(7–4), 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up1982French Open (3)Clay Sweden Mats Wilander6–1, 6–7(6–8), 0–6, 4–6

Records

EventYearsRecord accomplishedPlayer tied
US Open197772.1% (106–41) games winning percentage in 1 tournamentStands alone
Grand Prix Tour197716 titles in 1 seasonStands alone
Grand Prix Tour197714 clay court titles in 1 seasonStands alone
Grand Prix Tour1973–88632 clay court match winsStands alone
Grand Prix Tour1977145 match wins in 1 seasonStands alone
Grand Prix Tour1973–83794 outdoor matches won Stands alone

Notes

  1. ↑ The Australian Open was played twice in 1977, in January and December. Vilas played only in the January event.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 The year-ending Masters tournament was played in January of the following year.

References

  1. ↑ "Sports Network bio". Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  2. ↑ "Player Activity – Guillermo Vilas". ATP World Tour. 1977. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Guillermo Vilas". Hall of Famers. International Tennis Hall of Fame. 1991.
  4. ↑ "Fantástico, Guillermo!". Sports Illustrated. Vol. 47 no. 12. September 19, 1977. pp. 12–17.
  5. ↑ Dicker, Ron (30 August 2004). "With Few Exceptions, the String Remains the Same". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on 20 April 2005. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
  6. 1 2 Clarey, Christopher (27 May 2015). "Years Later for Guillermo Vilas, He's Still Not the One". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Perry, Douglas (27 May 2015). "Guillermo Vilas got robbed: Why the ATP made the wrong call about controversial No. 1 ranking". The Oregonian/OregonLive.com. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Diego Amuy (26 May 2015). "Guillermo Vilas has been number one in the world". BATennis World.
  9. ↑ "Player activity – Guillermo Vilas". ATP World Tour. 1992. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Howard Fendrich (1 January 2009). "Federer stunned by del Potro in US Open final". USTA.
  11. ↑ "1972 French Open draw". Retrieved 11 September 2012.
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