  |
Guillermo Vilas personifies the Sportsman as Renaissance Man By James H. DeLorenzo [Originally published in the ATP Tour's International Tennis Magazine July/August 1998 issue.] It is rare to find an athlete with the soul of a poet. It is even rarer to find someone who is accomplished at both. But Guillermo Vilas is just such a rarity. Possibly the greatest tennis player to ever compete out of South America, and certainly one of the greatest sports heroes in the history of Argentina, Vilas still draws crowds to his matches. Nowadays, the 45-year-old Vilas competes regularly on the Nuveen Tour/ATP Senior Tour of Champions, alongside Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and many more of his contemporaries. "I still have the fire in me," Vilas said. "I still want to go out there and compete." A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Vilas was the first Argentine and only the seventh Latin American so honored when he was elected in 1991. Off the court, Vilas is a true Renaissance man. Vilas has had two books of his poetry published in his native Argentina, as well as in France and Romania - "Cosecha de Cuatro [Harvest of Four] was published in 1981, while "125" was published in 1974. An album of his music was released in Argentina in the early '90s, while Vilas is in production of a second album, with some of the lyrics in English, which he hopes to release in the near future. He also owns several tennis clubs around the world, which keep the still-youthful Vilas travelling when he is not on the court. Earlier this year, Vilas played some of the best tennis he has played in some time. Competing at the Citibank Champions tournament at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in March, Vilas upset the top-seeded Connors in the first round. It was the first time since the start of the senior circuit in 1993 that Vilas managed a victory over Connors, after eight previous losses. Vilas followed that victory with only his second senior tour victory in nine tries against Borg, but then lost in the finals to Andres Gomez in a hard-fought 6-4, 6-4 match. "That was the best tennis I've played since I started the senior circuit," Vilas said. "I am very happy about that." Vilas was born August 17, 1952 in the beach resort of Mar del Plata, 250 miles southeast of Buenos Aires. At the age of 12, he won his first club title in a mixed doubles match By 1970 Vilas was on the tennis circuit, where he met Ion Tiriac, the Romanian Davis Cup star who later became his manager and mentor. On court today, his long hair is still held back by a thick headband. The physique is still too stocky for a tennis natural. The shots are still loaded with topspin, exacting enormous effort on every stroke from his massive left arm. And from the stands, fans still can be heard yelling, "Viva, Willy!" for one of the few true jet setters still travelling the tennis world. The fans who gather at the Nuveen Tour stops nowadays, remember the Vilas who won the 1977 French Open, the 1977 United States Open at Forest Hills and the Australian Open twice (1978-79). They also remember Vilas notching the longest winning streak in modern men's tennis, 50 straight matches. Vilas started his ascent in the tennis ranks in 1974, when he finished #4 in the world and defeated Ilie Nastase in five sets to win the year-end Masters. Vilas would remain a fixture in the top ten for nine consecutive years (1974-83) Vilas used the 1977 season to showcase his talents. During that year, Vilas played a remarkable 159 matches, winning 145. He was considered to be the best player in the world that year after he won 16 titles, including the French and U.S. Opens. He set a record by winning 50 consecutive matches between 1977 and 1978, a mark which may never be surpassed. As important as 1977 was to Vilas's tennis career, it was also an important year for his writing. ''The two weeks after my Roland Garros (French Open) win were very important'', he said. ''I wrote five poems about the day, Saturday.'' Vilas said the themes of his poems don't have a particular time or place -- they are, more than anything, universal experiences. ''If one travels and suffers from a great deal of anguish, the anguish that one suffers is the anguish of all people,'' he said. ''It is not a personal experience.'' ''Many people judge my poetry as that of a tennis player, not a poet, and as such they are critical,'' Vilas said recently. ''It is both an advantage and a disadvantage.'' Among his tennis accomplishments, Vilas captured back-to-back Australian Open titles (1978-79), highlighting a remarkable 23-3 record in this event. Vilas also was a three-time Grand Prix winner and led his native Argentina to the Davis Cup finals in 1981, where they were defeated by the McEnroe-led U.S. team. Vilas' 61 career singles titles places him fifth on the all-time best list. "If you can do things well, why should you stop?" he said. "You want to continue as long as you can. If you don't, it's like cheating yourself." Vilas has been a mainstay on the senior tennis circuit since its first tournament in 1993. He finished the 1994-95 season ranked seventh in the Nuveen Tour Points Standings, and was ranked ninth at the end of the 1995-96 season. He ended the 1996-97 season tied with Jose-Luis Clerc for fifth. "I hate to lose," Vilas said. "The tennis may have changed and it's not always easy to adjust to guys who used to serve and volley but are now rallying from the baseline, or others who once moonballed all day but now hit harder than anyone else. But that doesn't matter one bit. Everyone out there still wants to win." "I grew up with these guys," said Vilas of his fellow senior circuit players. "I don't like to play against a guy I don't know. I'm not up for it. But having Connors in front of you, or Borg, then yes. I've played against the best." "It's been fun to see the different spirit of these Champions events," Vilas said. "I've gone to dinner with Borg and Connors and we talked and told stories until 2 in the morning. We talked about things other than tennis. Can you imagine the young player today doing that?"
|
|
| ||