Guillermo Vilas is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina.
Although he peaked at world no.
2 on the ATP rankings in 1977, several sources and publications ranked Vilas as the world
no.
1 that year.
Vilas was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament and is considered
one of the greatest South American tennis players ever.
He was the second male player to win more than 900 matches in the Open Era, reaching
the mark in July 1987, behind only Jimmy Connors who reached 900 in 1985.
Ivan Lendl and Roger Federer have also surpassed 900 wins.
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 and the 1978 and
1979 Australian Open.
He was also the runner-up at the French Open three times and at the Australian Open once.
In 1974 he won the year end Masters Grand Prix title.
In addition he won seven Championship Series titles 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.
His playing record for 1977 was 145 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(4), 6–0 in a match where Vilas surprised
his American rival by attacking the net.
Winning streak, most titles in a single year In 1977 he won seven consecutive titles after
Wimbledon – Kitzbühel, Washington, Louisville, South Orange, Columbus, US Open and Paris
– 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 57-match winning streak on clay courts and unofficial tournaments),
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.
After that he won a further 28 matches in a row with titles at Tehran, Bogotá, Santiago,
Buenos Aires and Johannesburg.
That run was ended in the Masters semifinals by Björn Borg
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, he was never
ranked by the ATP as World No. 1 during 1977.
He was instead year-end World No. 2 in those rankings, below Jimmy Connors.
There is some controversy regarding his status as No. 2 ranked player for that year, but
no official statement has been given by ATP.
Retirement Vilas retired from the ATP tour in 1989 but
still played ATP Challenger Series until 1992.
He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991.
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 US Open finals in 2009.
Distinctions Players with most titles in a season: 16 in
1977.
Players with most wins in a season: 134 in 1977.
Won the Grand Prix in 1974, 1975, and 1977 Held the open era male record for the longest
winning streak on clay courts at 53 matches, set in 1977, until it was bettered by Rafael
Nadal in 2006.
Nadal later extended this to 81 matches.
Won 62 ATP singles titles and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments.
Won 16 doubles titles with other 10 doubles finals.
He took Argentina to its first-ever Davis Cup final in 1981, together with José Luis
Clerc, 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 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 and Guillermo Coria were named after him.
In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put Vilas in 24th place in its list of the 40 Greatest Players
of the Tennis Open Era.
The only player to win ATP Tour singles titles in five different continents in the same year,
1977 – Europe, South America, North America, Africa, and Asia.
Career statistics Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
Finals: 8 Year-End Championship performance timeline
Finals: 1 Records
These records were attained in Open Era of tennis.
^ Denotes consecutive streak.
Career finals:104* Singles titles:(62)
Singles runners-up: 1972 – Buenos Aires, Cincinnati
1974 – Washington D.C. 1975 – San Francisco, Boston, French Open
1976 – Rome, Dallas WCT, São Paulo WCT 1977 – Aix en Provence, Nice, Palm Springs,
Baltimore, Australian Open, Johannesburg*(*unfinished) 1978 – French Open
1979 – Sydney Indoor, Indianapolis, Rome, Stuttgart Indoor, Richmond WCT
1980 – Barcelona, Madrid, Hamburg, Monte Carlo
1981 – Buenos Aires, Barcelona, North Conway, Washington D.C., Kitzbühel, Boca Raton, Monte
Carlo*(*unfinished) 1982 – Johannesburg, Baltimore WCT, Barcelona,
Gstaad, French Open 1983 – Barcelona, Hilton Head WCT, Rotterdam,
Detroit WCT 1986 – Forest Hills
Other singles titles not listed by the ATP website
Doubles titles 1973 – Buenos Aires
1974 – Buenos Aires, Tehran, Toronto, Hilversum 1975 – Barcelona, Louisville, Hilversum
1977 – Buenos Aires, Tehran, Nice, Baltimore 1978 – Aix-En-Provence, Munich
1979 – North Conway, San Jose Notes
References
External links Guillermo Vilas at the Association of Tennis
Professionals Guillermo Vilas at the International Tennis
Hall of Fame