THE tennisreporters.net NEWSLETTER: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

Vilas: valuable opinions from a valuable veteran

By Sandra Harwitt
tennisreporters.net

FROM THE U.S. OPEN – Back in the good old days when tennis was experiencing the tennis boom, the big names in the game were Borg, Vilas and Connors. Decidedly different personalities – Bjorn Borg was the cool cat, Guillermo Vilas, the introspective poet and Jimmy Connors, the brash neighborhood kid – and sports fans around the world were captivated.

Now, a quarter of a century from when Vilas won the '77 Roland Garros and U.S. Open titles, the Argentinean explains that the players of today don't lack personality as many suspect, they are just held to a much too high a standard.

"Now the players, anything they do is not going to impress you," Vilas said. People are not impressed by anything. If they play a guitar, they are gonna say they have to play like Van Halen. Guga (Gustavo Kuerten) was doing surfing. He fell two times. They said, 'Stick to tennis.' The guys surfing – he's doing what he likes. Now they demand quality. In our time, we would come with a guitar, we were like 'Oh, Artistic person.' We just have a guitar -- we play terrible. But it was different. So I think they are not completely fair with these guys. These guys are really nice guys. It's just every time they open their mouths, it's like boom, they go after them."

Vilas is quick to acknowledge that the generation right before his and also his own generation broke some barriers in the game, starting with one of the simplest elements for players -- a place to sit.

"You have to understand … we were questioning things; we came with our styles," Vilas said Sunday. "We were not following the rules if they were stupid rules. Like on the changeover, you used to cannot sit. We said, 'Why can't I sit?' It's true when Stan Smith and (Ilie) Nastase played they couldn't sit during the final of Wimbledon. Then there was one day when a guy said, 'I have 20 seconds and I want to spend this 20 seconds sitting.' And then we start grabbing chairs until they said, 'Don't grab any more chairs. We're gonna put two chairs on court' and that's how the chairs started."

There's pretty much a rule that every player grows up idolizing another player and Vilas was no different. And naturally, Vilas tended to look up to fellow southpaws, most especially Rod Laver.

LAVER, FRASER PROVIDE TIPS
"I love Rod Laver," Vilas said. "People ask me why I have this arm (his playing arm) so big and it's very easy to know. Rod also had a huge arm and I always wanted to imitate him. He kind of set the rules for many things. He was the first Australian with topspin. The way he moved on court – he was not playing like a typical Australian. He won everything.

"You know, the whole of life is about opening doors -- somebody has to open the door for you. When I met Laver, he gave me a couple of tips about me, how to play. When I met Neale Fraser (a left-handed Aussie player), he helped me during one very big event. He came and said, 'Do you want me to help you?' I said, 'Yes, please.' He helped me. People open doors for you. That's the way life is."

When Vilas was asked where he keeps his many trophies from his 62 career titles, chief among them the '78 and '79 Australian Open and '77 French and U.S. Open trinkets, he gave a very unexpected and philosophical view of the prizes received.

"Trophies. We have no trophies because they stay in the place. You know, most of the big tournaments, they just give you a replica. I have tons of replicas. When I played the last one in Forest Hills, they didn't give me a replica. They gave me a little ball -- gold ball. I lost it right in the changing room so I've never had it.

"But, you know, the good thing is they are here, so everybody can see them and they see your name. So it's interesting. Every time they say, 'Where are your trophies?' I say, 'Oh, you have to fly to different places and look for them.' "

WOULD LIKE TO BE DAVIS CUP CAPTAIN
Another area that Vilas weighed in on is the unfortunate current political/economic climate in Argentina. He also mentioned his disappointment in having been the country's greatest tennis player, an idol for today's Argentinean players like recent Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian, Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Coria and Gaston Gaudio, and not being elected for Davis Cup captain duty.

"In Argentina, it's impossible to be a politician," he said. "I cannot be captain of the Davis Cup in my own country. I don't think I can ever succeed. That's something I do well, tennis. I don't think I can be a politician if I cannot even be the Davis Cup captain of my own team. To be a Davis Cup captain is not the dream of a player. A player wants to win these events. You don't want to be there, sitting and saying, 'Okay, come on now, go' because it's not your thing really. But it's a natural thing, after you've been good at something, you can teach something to the next generation."

As for his great rivals on the tennis court, he lists good friends Borg and Connors in the same sentence.

"I have Borg and Connors," Vilas said, remembering back to his day. "I like to play Borg in fast courts and Jimmy on slow courts, which was not really the case in reality. I was like General Gonzalez right in the middle -- I have to meet one or the other. It was a great time. You have to admit it was fantastic. I think we were a fantastic bunch of players."