Rafael Nadal: 'When I was very young, I do remember one thing he told me'

Guillermo Vilas was one of the first 'rockstars' of the Open Era of tennis, with his wild mane and iconoclastic charisma. Also, of course, he was one of the great players in the history of the circuit. The Argentine southpaw was one of the pioneers of the topspin effect and the inventor of the blow known as Gran Willy - consisting of hitting the ball between the legs and with his back to the net - and the first South American to win a Grand Slam. He earned four throughout his 18-year career. Vilas is one of the great sports icons in Latin America and, obviously, especially in his native country; and Argentines, you know, take their idols very seriously. That is why many compatriots are frustrated and hurt that Vilas never officially reached the top of the ATP ranking and instead other tennis players from the continent, such as the Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten and the Chilean Marcelo Ríos, if they achieved that feat by accumulating less merits. Rafael Nadal meanwhile recalled an interesting anecdote about Guillermo Vilas and himself in the documentary produced by Netflix. The two players, being southpaws and clay-court specialists, shared a close bond off the court.

Nadal on Guillermo Vilas

“When I was very young, I do remember one thing Guillermo Vilas told me - ‘Everybody knows how to run to the side, but to run back and forth, it's a lot more complicated, so you have to try to take players out of their comfort zone'," Rafael Nadal said. The movie’s second narrative track concerns the quest, by Argentine tennis journalist Eduardo Puppo, to rectify that injustice. In 2007, Puppo read that the WTA had amended its rankings from 1976, and in doing so had lifted Evonne Goolagong Cawley to the No. 1 spot for two weeks. It was a short reign, but a big deal for Goolagong Cawley. Puppo thought he could do the same for Vilas, who had been derisively branded “The Eternal Second” by the Argentine press. Vowing to prove that his countryman had been No. 1 for at least some point, Puppo took a 12-year dive down a rankings rabbit hole. He dug through the ATP’s records, tried to recalculate the rankings from 1973 to ’78, and quit in despair at least twice. “He put Vilas’s ATP ranking at the top of his priorities,” Puppo’s wife tells says, with a half-incredulous smile." The movie ends with Puppo visiting Vilas in Monte Carlo. Their quest has ended in failure, and part of Vilas seems broken by it. Over the last 15 years, as the Big 3 have put a stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking, the value of that being a member of that exclusive club has only increased. Vilas was a player who gave up everything to be No. 1, and succeeded. But he’s not allowed to say it.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3emBKE3