Guillermo Vilas

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**Guillermo Vilas**

Country	Argentina
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date of birth	August 17, 1952
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Turned Pro	1969
Retired	1992
Plays	Left; One-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$ 4,923,882
Singles
Career record:	920-281
Career titles:	62
Highest ranking:	No. 2 (April 30, 1975)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (1978, 1979)
French Open	W (1977)
Wimbledon	QF (1975, 1976)
U.S. Open	W (1977)
Doubles
Career record:	216-149
Career titles:	15
Highest ranking:	No. 175 (January 3, 1983)

Guillermo Vilas (born August 17, 1952 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a former Argentine professional tennis player.

1 Career
2 Grand Slam singles finals
- 2.1 Wins (4)
- 2.2 Runner-ups (4)
3 ATP titles (77)
- 3.1 Singles (62)
- 3.2 Doubles (15)
4 ATP singles runner-ups (41)
5 Grand Slam / Masters singles performance
6 Significant Success in 1977
7 External links

[edit] Career

Vilas turned professional in 1969, finishing in the top ten from 1974 to 1982. He was a clay-court specialist, but also played well in hardcourt, grass and carpet.

A southpaw, Vilas became the first South American male player to win a grand slam event, winning four times : the 1977 French Open and U.S. Open titles (both played in claycourt), and the 1978 and 1979 Australian Open titles (both played in grass). He was also three-times French Open runners-up (1975, 1978 and 1983) and once Australian Open runner-up (January, 1977)

Raised in the sea resort of Mar del Plata, Vilas played his first tour event in 1969 and got his first big break in the 1974 Masters tournament (played in grass), where he defeated Ilie Năstase in the final match.

A left-handed baseliner Vilas' best season on tour was 1977 when he not only won two of the four majors but also 16 of the 31 ATP tournaments he entered (absolute record in the Open Era), a record which at the time had only ever been equaled by the legendary Rod Laver. His playing record for that season was an amazing 145 wins against 14 losses (ATP win-loss record was 128-14). The season climax 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.

He has a 46 match winning streak on any surfaces (still the modern record) and consecutively won 7 titles -Kitzbühel (Clay), Washington (Clay), Louisville (Hard), South Orange (Hard), Columbus (Hard), U.S. Open (Clay) and Paris (Clay) after Wimbledon in 1977. He also had 53 winning streak in claycourt (including both ATP and unofficial tournaments, record broken by Rafael Nadal in 2006). Both his winning streaks were terminated on October 1977 by Ilie Năstase in the final of Aix-en-Provence tournament. In that 5-setter final, he dropped first 2 sets by 1-6, 5-7 and then retired from the competition because of his dissatifaction with Ilie Năstase's using an illegal racquet. He complained that the opponent had used the spaghetti string^[1] racquet which was banned by ATP short after.

Even though he won 16 ATP singles titles including French Open (named after Roland Garros) and U.S. Open and the runner-up of Australian Open of January in 1977, he never rose up to number 1. He was year-end number 2 in the 1977 ATP ranking, only below Jimmy Connors (who won 7 titles including Masters and both runners-up of Wimbledon and US Open in 1977). However, the magazine World Tennis, generally the referring one of that sport at that time, gave Vilas the number one ranking and Champion of the World title.

Vilas retired from the ATP tour in 1989, but still played ATP Challenger Series until 1992. [1] His highest tour ranking was World No. 2. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. At the end of his career, he had 62 ATP singles titles (5th most in Open Era) with 41 singles runners-up, and 15 doubles titles with other 10 doubles finals.

He also took Argentina to its first-ever Davis Cup final in 1981 (lost to U.S.A.), together with José Luis Clerc, who was also a top-ten player. The Argentine press made many mentions of the tensions between the two, which even reverberated to the 2004 French Open awards ceremony, in which Vilas presented Gastón Gaudio with his trophy, over Clerc's objections.

Vilas is single-handedly responsible for the popularity of tennis in Argentina or even Latin America. Guillermo Cañas and Guillermo Coria were named after him.

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1977	French Open	Brian Gottfried	6-0, 6-3, 6-0
1977	U.S. Open	Jimmy Connors	2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0
1978	Australian Open	John Marks	6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
1979	Australian Open (2)	John Sadri	7-6, 6-3, 6-2

[edit] Runner-ups (4)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1975	French Open	Björn Borg	6-2, 6-3, 6-4
1977	Australian Open (Jan.)	Roscoe Tanner	6-3, 6-3, 6-3
1978	French Open (2)	Björn Borg	6-2, 6-1, 6-3
1982	French Open (3)	Mats Wilander	1-6, 7-6, 6-0, 6-4

[edit] ATP titles (77)

[edit] Singles (62)

ATP Singles

Grand Slam (4)

Masters (1)

ATP Grand Prix (57)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
01.	December 2, 1973	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Björn Borg (Sweden)	3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-6 ret.
02.	July 24, 1974	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Manuel Orantes (Spain)	6-1, 6-2
03.	July 28, 1974	Hilversum, Netherlands	Clay	Barry Phillips-Moore (Australia)	6-4, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
04.	August 11, 1974	Louisville, USA	Clay	Jaime Fillol (Chile)	6-4, 7-5
05.	August 18, 1974	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Manuel Orantes (Spain)	6-4, 6-2, 6-3
06.	November 3, 1974	Tehran, Iran	Clay	Raúl Ramírez (Mexico)	6-0, 6-3, 6-1
07.	December 1, 1974	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Manuel Orantes (Spain)	6-3, 0-6, 7-5, 6-2
08.	December 15, 1974	Masters, Melbourne, Australia	Grass	Ilie Năstase (Romania)	7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
09.	May 11, 1975	Munich, Federal Republic of Germany	Clay	Karl Meiler (Federal Republic of Germany)	2-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3
10.	July 20, 1975	Hilversum, Netherlands	Clay	Zeljko Franulovic (Yugoslavia)	6-4, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3
11.	July 27, 1975	Washington, USA	Clay	Harold Solomon (USA)	6-1, 6-3
12.	August 10, 1975	Louisville, USA	Clay	Ilie Năstase (Romania)	6-4, 6-3
13.	November 16, 1975	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Adriano Panatta (Italy)	6-1, 6-4, 6-4
14.	February 22, 1976	St. Louis WCT, USA	Carpet	Vijay Amritraj (India)	4-6, 6-0, 6-4
15.	February 29, 1976	Fort Worth WCT, USA	Hard	Phil Dent (Australia)	6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-1
16.	April 18, 1976	Monte Carlo WCT, Monaco	Clay	Wojtek Fibak (Poland)	6-1, 6-1, 6-4
17.	August 22, 1976	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Wojtek Fibak (Poland)	6-4, 7-6, 6-2
18.	November 21, 1976	São Paulo, Brazil	Carpet	Jose Higueras (Spain)	6-3, 6-0
19.	November 28, 1976	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Jaime Fillol (Chile)	6-2, 6-2, 6-3
20.	February 13, 1977	Springfield, USA	Carpet	Stan Smith (USA)	3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2
21.	April 17, 1977	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Wojtek Fibak (Poland)	6-4, 6-3, 6-0
22.	April 24, 1977	Virginia Beach, USA	Hard	Ilie Năstase (Romania)	6-2, 4-6, 6-2
23.	June 5, 1977	French Open	Clay	Brian Gottfried (USA)	6-0, 6-3, 6-0
24.	July 17, 1977	Kitzbuhel, Austria	Clay	Jan Kodes (Czechoslovakia)	5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
25.	July 24, 1977	Washington, USA	Clay	Brian Gottfried (USA)	6-4, 7-5
26.	July 31, 1977	Louisville, USA	Hard	Eddie Dibbs (USA)	1-6, 6-0, 6-1
27.	August 7, 1977	South Orange, USA	Hard	Roscoe Tanner (USA)	6-4, 6-1
28.	August 14, 1977	Columbus, USA	Hard	Brian Gottfried (USA)	6-2, 6-1
29.	September 11, 1977	US Open	Clay	Jimmy Connors (USA)	2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0
30.	September 25, 1977	Paris, France	Clay	Christophe Roger-Vasselin (France)	6-2, 6-1, 7-6
31.	October 9, 1977	Tehran, Iran	Clay	Eddie Dibbs (USA)	6-2, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1
32.	November 13, 1977	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Jose Higueras (Spain)	6-1, 6-2, 6-3
33.	November 20, 1977	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Jaime Fillol (Chile)	6-0, 2-6, 6-4
34.	November 27, 1977	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Jaime Fillol (Chile)	6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3
35.	December 4, 1977	Johannesburg WCT, South Africa	Hard	Buster Mottram (Great Britain)	7-6, 6-3, 6-4
36.	May 21, 1978	Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany	Clay	Wojtek Fibak (Poland)	6-2, 6-4, 6-2
37.	May 28, 1978	Munich, Federal Republic of Germany	Clay	Buster Mottram (Great Britain)	6-1, 6-3, 6-3
38.	July 16, 1978	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	José Luis Clerc (Argentina)	6-3, 7-6, 6-4
39.	August 6, 1978	South Orange, USA	Clay	José Luis Clerc (Argentina)	6-1, 6-3
40.	October 1, 1978	Aix-En-Provence, France	Clay	José Luis Clerc (Argentina)	6-3, 6-0, 6-3
41.	October 29, 1978	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet	John McEnroe (USA)	6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4
42.	January 7, 1979	Australian Open 1978	Grass	John Marks (Australia)	6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
43.	January 14, 1979	Hobart, Australia	Grass	Mark Edmondson (Australia)	6-4, 6-4
44.	July 22, 1979	Washington, USA	Clay	Victor Pecci (Paraguay)	7-6, 7-6
45.	November 25, 1979	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	José Luis Clerc (Argentina)	6-1, 6-2, 6-2
46.	January 6, 1980	Australian Open 1979	Grass	John Sadri (USA)	7-6, 6-3, 6-2
47.	May 25, 1980	Rome, Italy	Clay	Yannick Noah (France)	6-0, 6-4, 6-4
48.	July 27, 1980	Kitzbuhel, Austria	Clay	Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia)	6-3, 6-2, 6-2
49.	September 14, 1980	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Paul McNamee (Australia)	6-4, 6-0, 6-0
50.	February 8, 1981	Mar del Plata, Argentina	Clay	Victor Pecci (Paraguay)	2-6, 6-3, 2-1 ret.
51.	March 15, 1981	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	Peter Elter (Federal Republic of Germany)	6-2, 6-3
52.	April 12, 1981	Houston, USA	Clay	Sammy Giammalva (USA)	6-2, 6-3
53.	February 7, 1982	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Alejandro Ganzábal (Argentina)	6-2, 6-4
54.	March 21, 1982	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Jimmy Connors (USA)	0-6, 6-2, 6-4
55.	March 28, 1982	Milan, Italy	Carpet	Jimmy Connors (USA)	6-3, 6-3
56.	April 11, 1982	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia)	6-1, 7-6, 6-3
57.	May 2, 1982	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia)	6-7, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-3
58.	July 18, 1982	Boston, USA	Clay	Mel Purcell (USA)	6-4, 6-0
59.	July 25, 1982	Kitzbuhel, Austria	Clay	Marcos Hocevar (Brazil)	7-6, 6-1
60.	February 13, 1983	Richmond WCT, USA	Carpet	Steve Denton (USA)	6-3, 7-5, 6-4
61.	February 27, 1983	Delray Beach WCT, USA	Clay	Pavel Slozil (Czechoslovakia)	6-1, 6-4, 6-0
62.	July 27, 1983	Kitzbuhel, Austria	Clay	Henri Leconte (France)	7-6, 4-6, 6-4

[edit] Doubles (15)

1974 (4) - Buenos Aires, Montreal/Toronto, Tehran, Hilversum
1975 (3) - Barcelona, Hilversum, Louisville
1977 (4) - Baltimore, Buenos Aires, Nice, Tehran
1978 (2) - Aix-En-Provence, Munich
1979 (2) - North Conway, San Jose

[edit] ATP singles runner-ups (41)

1972 (2) - Buenos Aires, Cincinnati
1974 (1) - Washington
1975 (3) - Boston, French Open, San Francisco
1976 (3) - Dallas WCT, Rome, São Paulo WCT
1977 (6) - Aix en Provence, Australian Open (Jan.), Baltimore, Nice, Palm Springs, Johannesburg
1978 (1) - French Open
1979 (5) - Indianapolis, Richmond WCT, Rome, Stuttgart Indoor, Sydney Indoor
1980 (4) - Barcelona, Hamburg, Madrid, Monte Carlo
1981 (6) - Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Kitzbuhel, North Conway, Pepsi Grand Slam, Washington
1982 (5) - Baltimore WCT, Barcelona, Gstaad, Johannesburg, French Open
1983 (4) - Barcelona, Detroit WCT, Hilton Head WCT, Rotterdam
1986 (1) - Forest Hills

[edit] Grand Slam / Masters singles performance

Tournament	1970	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	Career
Australian Open	-	-	-	-	-	-	F ¹	W ²	W ²	SF ²	3r ²	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
French Open	-	3r	3r	3r	F	QF	W	F	QF	QF	4r	F	QF	1r	2r	QF	2r	2r	1r	1
Wimbledon	1r	1r	-	3r	QF	QF	3r	3r	2r	-	1r	-	1r	-	-	1r	-	-	-	0
US Open	-	2r	1r	4r	SF	SF	W	4r	4r	4r	4r	SF	3r	3r	2r	1r	-	-	-	1
Masters	-	-	-	W	SF	SF	SF³	-	RR³	RR³	RR³	SF³	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1

¹ Australian Open played in January. (i.e. Australian Open was held twice in 1977.)
² Australian Open played in Season End from December to the next-year January.
³ Masters (now Tennis Masters Cup) played in the next-year January.

[edit] Significant Success in 1977

Vilas in 1977 (Source : ATP)

In 1977, Guillermo Vilas played 31 ATP Tour singles tournaments, entered 22 finals (including 3 Grand Slam Tournaments) and won 16 titles - the Record of number of singles titles won by one player in a year in the Open Era (including 2 Grand Slam titles).

He also had a 44 singles winning streak in any surfaces in ATP Tour (within July-September 1977, including 2 Davis Cup singles win over Australia which is not shown in ATP Profile.) [2] - the longest overall winning streak in Open Era.

The ATP record of 53 matches winning streak on clay (including unofficial tournaments), finished within 1977, was broken by Rafael Nadal in May 2006.

He is still the only player to win ATP singles titles in five different continents in the same year - Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia. (1977)

Singles Titles (16)
- Springfield, U.S.A. - Carpet
- Buenos Aires, Argentina - Clay
- Virginia Beach, U.S.A. - Hard
- Roland Garros (French Open) - Clay
- Kitzbuhel, Austria - Clay
- Washington, U.S.A. - Clay
- Louisville, U.S.A. - Hard
- South Orange, U.S.A. - Hard
- Columbus, U.S.A. - Hard
- U. S. Open - Clay
- Paris, France - Clay
- Tehran, Iran - Clay
- Bogotá, Colombia - Clay
- Santiago, Chile - Clay
- Buenos Aires-2, Argentina - Clay
- Johannesburg WCT, South Africa - Hard

Singles Runners-up (6)
- Australian Open - Grass
- Baltimore, U.S.A. - Carpet
- Palm Springs, U.S.A. - Hard
- Johannesburg, South Africa - Hard
- Nice, France - Clay
- Aix en Provence, France - Clay