Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...
former professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...
player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournaments, one
year-end Masters, nine
Grand Prix Super Series
The Grand Prix Super Series of men's tennis tournaments was part of the Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis tours between 1970 and 1989. They were held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. These tourname ...
titles and a total of 62
ATP titles. ''World Tennis'', ''
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, ...
'' and ''Livre d'or du tennis 1977'' (Christian Collin-Bernard Ficot), among other rankings and publications, rated him as
world No. 1 in 1977 (while others ranked
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 ...
or
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 ...
No. 1). In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in April 1975, a position he held for a total of 83 weeks. He was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
in 1991, two years after his first retirement.
Known for his
prolific match play, especially on clay, he became the second man to win more than 900 matches in the
Open Era
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...
, and his number of match-wins on clay (659) is 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 2016, ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' ranked him as the 3rd best male clay-court player of all time, behind
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...
and
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 ...
. In 2018, Steve Tignor for ''
Tennis Magazine
''Tennis'' is a U.S. print sports magazine devoted to the sport of tennis. It is published eight months per year, and operates a website, Tennis.com.
History
The magazine was established in May 1965, published out of Chicago with a regional focu ...
'' ranked him as the
16th greatest tennis player of the
Open Era
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...
.
Historical and statistical studies presented in 2015 by Argentinian journalist Eduardo Puppo and Romanian mathematician Marian Ciulpan concluded that Vilas should have been No. 1 in the old ATP ranking system for seven weeks between 1975 and 1976. The ATP Tour and its chief executive at that time,
Chris Kermode
Chris Kermode (born 13 January 1965) is a retired English male tennis player, a former tournament director and the executive chairman & president of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) from 2014 to 2019.
On 20 November 2013 Kermode wa ...
, although not refuting the data, decided not to officially recognize Vilas. The controversy is still in the legal stage. In October 2020,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
released a documentary film about the Vilas case titled "Guillermo Vilas: Settling the Score".
Career
Raised in the seaside resort of
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...
, Vilas was a
left-hander
In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...
and played his first tour event in 1968. He was in the year-ending top ten from 1974 through 1982. He was a
clay-court specialist
A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament.
T ...
but also played well on
hard-court,
grass
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...
, and
carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester ...
surfaces.
He won four Grand Slam titles: the
1977 French Open
The 1977 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 23 May until 5 June. It was the 81st staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Sla ...
and the
1977 US Open (both played on clay) and the
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government).
* January 6 ...
and
1979 Australian Open
The 1979 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia and was held from 24 December 1979 through 2 January 1980. It was the 68th edition of the Aust ...
(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
The Grand Prix Super Series of men's tennis tournaments was part of the Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis tours between 1970 and 1989. They were held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. These tourname ...
titles (1975–80), the precursors to the current
Masters 1000
The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...
.
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
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...
tournaments he entered. 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 run was winning the last
US Open played at
Forest Hills against
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 ...
2–6, 6–3, 7–6
(7–4), 6–0 in a match where Vilas surprised his American rival by attacking the net.
Winning streak
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. He also had a record 53-match winning streak on clay courts, which stood until surpassed by
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...
in 2006. Both his winning streaks were terminated in October 1977 by
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 rankin ...
in the final of the
Raquette d'Or 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
ITF). 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.
He was instead year-end world No. 2, behind Jimmy Connors (who won the Masters and seven other titles and was the runner-up at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1977). Nevertheless, Vilas was rated number one by ''World Tennis'',
''France Presse'', ''Tennis de France'', ''Le Livre d'or du Tennis'', Gene Scott, Peter Bodo, Christian Quidet, and Michael Sutter. The International Tennis Hall of Fame inscription for Vilas stated "it was generally considered Vilas was the real No. 1 for 1977". Vilas was also rated number one by Bud Collins and John Barrett by the 2010s.
Argentine journalist Eduardo Puppo and Romanian mathematician Marian Ciulpan investigated the 1973–78 period records, and delivered a detailed report with more than 1,200 pages in which they 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. Although the study was not refuted, in May 2015 the ATP announced it had decided not to make official the No. 1 position for Vilas because it happened in the interval between the publications of the official rankings.
In October 2020, Netflix released a documentary about the controversy titled "Guillermo Vilas: Settling the Score". It also covered (briefly)
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s.
At the age of 19, she won the French Open singl ...
's recognition as world no. 1 (for two weeks in 1976) retrospectively by the
WTA in 2007.
Retirement
Vilas retired from the ATP Tour in 1989 but still played on the
ATP Challenger Series
The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...
until 1992. He was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
in 1991.
Vilas was in the stands at
Flushing Meadows to cheer on his countryman,
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
, who beat
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...
in an upset in the 2009 US Open final.
Family
Vilas married Phiangphathu Khumueang in 2005. They have three daughters and one son. They reside in Monaco. He is reportedly suffering from a form of dementia.
Distinctions
* Won the
Grand Prix circuit
The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with ...
in 1974, 1975, and 1977.
* World Tennis Magazine, France Presse, Michel Sutter and Christian Quidet, among others, ranked him as No. 1 Tennis Player of the Year in 1977.
* Held the
Open Era
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...
male record for the longest winning streak on clay courts at 53 matches, set in 1977, until it was bettered by
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...
in 2006. Nadal later extended this to 81 matches.
* Won 62 ATP singles titles (eighth highest during the Open Era) and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments (plus two unfinished finals). Won 16 doubles titles with other 10 doubles finals.
* He took Argentina to its first-ever
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 organi ...
final in 1981 (lost to the United States), together with
José Luis Clerc
José Luis Clerc (born 16 August 1958) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 3 August 1981, following a run of 25 consecutive mat ...
, who was also a top-ten player. The Argentine press often referred to the tensions between the two of them, which even reverberated to the
2004 French Open
The 2004 French Open was the 108th edition of the tournament. Gastón Gaudio became the first men's Open Era Grand Slam title winner to save two match points in the final; the last time that had happened was 70 years earlier. Gaudio also became t ...
awards ceremony, in which Vilas presented
Gastón Gaudio with his trophy over Clerc's objections.
* Vilas's success on the court led to a surge in popularity of tennis in Argentina and throughout Latin America.
Guillermo Cañas
Guillermo Ignacio Cañas (; born November 25, 1977), often referred to as Willy Cañas, is a retired tennis player from Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and named after Argentine tennis star Guillermo Vilas. Cañas won the Canada Masters i ...
and
Guillermo Coria
Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed ''El Mago'' (''The Magician'' in Spanish), is an Argentine retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 3 singles ranking in May 2004. Coria achieved hi ...
were named after him.
* In 2005, ''
TENNIS Magazine
''Tennis'' is a U.S. print sports magazine devoted to the sport of tennis. It is published eight months per year, and operates a website, Tennis.com.
History
The magazine was established in May 1965, published out of Chicago with a regional focu ...
'' put Vilas in 24th place (15th male) in its
list of the 40 Greatest Players of the Tennis Open Era, men and women included.
Career statistics
Singles performance timeline
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)
Records
* These records were attained in
Open Era
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...
of tennis.
* ^ Denotes consecutive streak.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilas, Guillermo
Argentine male tennis players
Australian Open (tennis) champions
French Open champions
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Tennis players from Buenos Aires
Sportspeople from Mar del Plata
US Open (tennis) champions
1952 births
Living people
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles
World number 1 ranked male tennis players