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1978 World Championship Tennis Finals – Singles
Jimmy Connors was the defending champion but did not compete that year. Vitas Gerulaitis won in the final 6–3, 6–2, 6–1 against Eddie Dibbs. Seeds A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated. # Björn Borg ''(semifinals, withdrew)'' # Brian Gottfried ''(quarterfinals)'' # Vitas Gerulaitis (champion) # Ilie Năstase ''(quarterfinals)'' # Eddie Dibbs ''(final)'' # Raúl Ramirez ''(quarterfinals)'' # Corrado Barazzutti ''(semifinals)'' # Dick Stockton ''(quarterfinals)'' Draw References1978 World Championship Tennis Finals Draw 2009-05-06) {{DEFAULTSORT:1978 World Championship Tennis Finals - Singles |
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player, known as Vitas Gerulaitis. In 1975, he won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. (Gerulaitis won the tournament that was held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament.) He won two Italian Open titles, in 1977 and 1979, and the WCT Finals in Dallas in 1978. Early life Gerulaitis was born on July 26, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lithuanian immigrant parents, and grew up in Howard Beach, Queens. He attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, graduating in 1971. He attended Columbia College of Columbia University with the class of 1975 for one year before dropping out to pursue tennis full-time. Gerulaitis was nicknamed "The Lithuanian Lion". His younger sister Ruta was also a professional tennis player. Both siblings' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eddie Dibbs
Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American tennis player also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times. Dibbs holds the record number of ATP Tour career match wins for a player who never reached a Grand Slam final. He did reach two semifinals, both at Roland Garros, losing to Guillermo Vilas in 1975 and to Adriano Panatta in 1976. His most significant victory was defeating Jimmy Connors, 1–6, 6–1, 7–5 in London on carpet. In 1976, only one other American player, Connors, had a better record than Dibbs. In 1977, Dibbs was the 2nd highest ranked American in the tour. In the 1978 season, he ended the year as the leading money winner on the professional tennis tour. Dibbs was consistently ranked in the top 10 tour rankings for five years from 1975 to 1979. He is also the American tennis player with most singles victories in clay ever in the Open ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Connors
James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 weeks. By virtue of his long and prolific career, Connors still holds three prominent Open Era men's singles records: 109 titles, 1,557 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. His titles include eight major singles titles (a joint Open Era record five US Opens, two Wimbledons, one Australian Open), three year-end championships, and 17 Grand Prix Super Series titles. In 1974, he became the second man in the Open Era to win three major titles in a calendar year, and was not permitted to participate in the fourth, the French Open. Connors finished year end number one in the ATP rankings from 1974 to 1978. In 1982, he won both Wimbledon and the US Open and was ATP Player of the Year and ITF World Champion. He retired in 1996 at the age of 43. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimbledon. Borg won four consecutive French Open titles (1978–81) and is 6–0 in French Open finals. He was the first man since 1886 to contest six consecutive Wimbledon finals, a record surpassed by Roger Federer's seven consecutive finals (2003–09). He is the only man to achieve the Channel Slam three times. Borg contested the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open finals in the same year three times (1978, 1980–81). He won three major titles without dropping a set during those tournaments. However, he never won the US Open despite four runner-up finishes. Borg also won three year-end championships and 16 Grand Prix Super Series titles. Overall, he set numerous records that still stand. He was ATP Player of the Year from 1976 to 1980 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Gottfried
Brian Edward Gottfried (born January 27, 1952) is a retired American tennis player who won 25 singles titles and 54 doubles titles during his professional career. He was the runner-up in singles at the 1977 French Open, won the 1975 and 1977 French Open Doubles as well as the 1976 Wimbledon Doubles. He achieved a career-high singles ranking on the ATP tour on June 19, 1977, when he became world No. 3, and a career-high doubles ranking on December 12, 1976, when he became No. 2 . Tennis career Junior and college Gottfried was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and is Jewish. He began playing tennis at the age of 5, after receiving a racquet as a gift. In all, Gottfried won 14 national junior titles. As a teen Gottfried attended Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Piper High School in Sunrise, Florida. In 1970, as a freshman at Trinity University in Texas, he won the USTA boys 18s singles championship, as well as the doubles championship with Alexander Mayer. He was an All ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ilie Năstase
Ilie Theodoriu Năstase (, born 19 July 1946) is a former World No. 1 Romanian tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974, and was the first man to hold the top position on the computerized ATP rankings. Năstase is one of the 10 players in history who have won over 100 total ATP titles, with 64 in singles and 45 in doubles.Năstase won seven major titles: two in singles, three in men's doubles and two in mixed doubles. He also won four Masters Grand Prix year-end championship titles and seven Grand Prix Super Series titles (1970–73), the precursors to the current Masters 1000. He was the first professional sports figure to sign an endorsement contract with Nike, doing so in 1972. Năstase wrote several novels in French in the 1980s, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. Career At the beginning of his career in 1966, Năstase traveled around the world competing with Ion Țiriac. They represented Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raúl Ramirez
Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may refer to the: * Raoul (founder of Vaucelles Abbey) (d. 1152), also known as Saint Raul * Raúl Acosta (born 1962), Colombian road cyclist * Raúl Alfonsín (1927–2009), former President of Argentina (1983–89) * Raúl Albiol (born 1985), Spanish footballer * Raul Amaya (born 1986), American mixed martial artist * Raúl Baena (born 1989), Spanish association football player * Raul Boesel (born 1957), Brazilian race car driver * Raúl Castañeda (born 1982), Mexican boxer * Raúl Castro (born 1931), First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, brother of Fidel Castro * Raúl Correia (born 1993), Angolan footballer * Raúl Diago (born 1965), Cuban volleyball player * Raúl de Tomás (born 1994), Spanish footballer * Raul Di Blasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corrado Barazzutti
Corrado Barazzutti (born 19 February 1953, in Udine) is a former tennis player from Italy. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 7, achieved in August 1978. After his player career Barazzutti was non-playing captain of the Italy Davis Cup team and the Italy Fed Cup team. Since he has been captain, the Italian Fed Cup team have won the Fed Cup (now known as Billie Jean King Cup) four times: 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013. Career As player Barazzutti gained fame in 1971 by winning the Orange Bowl and the French Open Boys' Singles, and he turned professional in the same year. He had been called to the Italy Davis Cup team the previous year, an event which he played a total of 44 matches. In 1976, Barazzutti was a member of the Italian Davis Cup team who won the Davis Cup in Chile. In Grand Slam tournaments, his best results are the semifinals in 1977 at the US Open and in 1978 at the French Open; he was beaten in straight sets by Jimmy Connors and Björn Borg respectively. Bar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Stockton (tennis)
Richard "Dick" LaClede Stockton (born February 18, 1951) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. In addition to his playing career, he was the head coach of the men's tennis team at the University of Virginia. for three years, from 1998-2001. Stockton also served as the Head Men's Tennis Coach at Piedmont College in Demorest, GA from 2018-2021. Stockton's highest world ranking was world No. 8. He reached the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1974, the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in 1976 and 1977 and the semifinals in the 1978 French Open. Stockton played on the U.S. Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ... Team five times (1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979), including the U.S. Davis Cup Championship Team in 1979. Career finals Singles: 18 (8 tit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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