Facing Guillermo Vilas

Vilas defeated Connors on green clay in the US Open final in 1977.

Guillermo Vilas, aka Willy, was the first great South American player of the Open era. He won four Grand Slam titles. In 1977, he won the French Open and then the US Open played on HarTru at Forrest Hills, defeating Jimmy Connors in straight sets.

Then in 1978 and 1979 he won the Australian Open on grass. He also got to the French final 3 other times and to the Australian final the year before he won it.

Even today there is a lingering controversy over why he was never ranked number one in the world (Click Here.) Regardless he was a champion, and a transitional figure as the game moved to heavy backcourt topspin and extreme fitness training.

In a new book, Facing Guillermo Vilas, Scoop Malinowski collects the recollections of people Vilas knew and players he faced, all talking about what Vilas was like and how he played the game. Here are some of the excerpts.

"Vilas practiced 7 hours a day. He said, "If I want to play a good 5 hours, I have to practice 7. He would practice with ten players in day. Then he would run the beach for an hour."

Vilas would practice 7 hours to play 5 hours.

"He was an absolute brute. He was just a freak. His topspin—absolutely massive. He set a lot of bench marks for a lot of people. Hard work. I don't think he did a lot of gym work but he did a lot of push up and situps and burpees. Before a three set match it was not unusual for him to warm up for three hours."

"I played Vilas in the 1986 French Open, my first French Open. I had never played Willy and he quickly began the grind. He was up 6-3, 6-6, and 6-5 in the breaker when he missed an easy overhead. I ended up winning the second set. And then the match became a true test of endurance.

I ended up winning the last 2 sets in tiebreakers. I can honest say that winning that match on a hot French center court with screaming Parisians was by far the most difficult both mentally and physically for me.

So much so I could not get out of bed the next day. I was so stiff and beat up I stayed in bed all day and just slept. I consider it the best win of my career."

"I remember when you would serve, he would jump around trying to unnerve you. At Wimbledon Fred Perry came up to me and said "You know he will jump around, so what you should do is just stand there and look at him as he jumps. See if he keeps jumping for five sets." And it worked. He stopped jumping around. I guess he said to himself there was no point in doing this.

"The other memories I have about him are stories I heard. Writing poetry. And that he'd go to Argentina and hunt wild pigs with a knife."

"In the 1983 Masters at Madison Square Garden in my semifinal against Vilas during a changeover someone tapped me on the shoulder and said Hey John. I ignored him again when he tapped me again. Finally extremely annoyed I turned and found myself face to face with Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, who had come specifically to see me. My excitement helped me cruise to an easy 3 and 3 victory.

That same year we went down to Buenos Aires to play our first round Davis Cup match against Argentina and I lost both my singles matches. After Jose Luis Clerc beat me in five tough sets in the first, I went flat as a pancake against Vilas who came from 2-4 down in the first to win the next 15 games.

I'd never been steamrolled like that before. Maybe that was why I was able to crack one of my first jokes in a tight situation, a rarity that produced an even greater rarity—an on court laugh from captain Arthur Ashe. Down 4-6, 0-6, 0-5, I walked over to Arthur and asked "What should I do now?"

"I feel I have a little bit of an advantage when I play Guillermo because I have been beating him so many times and so easily. We do everything about the same but I think I do it a little bit better.

"Nevertheless when you go on court you have to hate everyone. It's the way it has to be. For sure on court I hate Vilas. The friendship will exist after the match. But on court you must do what you must to beat the man on the other side."