Guillermo Vilas - "Settling The Score" - Netflix Documentary

[seano]

Growing up a fan of Guillermo Vilas, there's a entertaining documentary about a journalist's fight to have Guillermo declared Number 1 in the world during a stretch in 1975. Worth a watch!

[don_budge]

Growing up a fan of Guillermo Vilas, there's a entertaining documentary about a journalist's fight to have Guillermo declared Number 1 in the world during a stretch in 1975. Worth a watch!

Me too seano...a big fan of Guillermo growing up. It started for me around 1973 or so at the old Washington Star tennis tournament played on Har-tru. I was at the Don Budge Tennis Camp in McDonough, Maryland and he would take the whole camp to the tournament as a field trip every year. I will never forget Mr. Budge gushing over the Vilas backhand. There weren't too many players rolling over it the way Vilas was at that point in tennis history. Don was absolutely enthralled.

And I was as well. I remember playing best of eleven ping pong in my buddy Paul Morgan's basement. We would play all of the players styles. From Connors to Borg to McEnroe...Vilas too. I remember exclaiming "VILAS!!!" hitting topspin backhand winners. Screaming "VILAS!!!" until the wee hours. He was a compelling character and personality. Ion Tiriac was responsible for coaching and grooming him. Sure wish I could see this documentary but I cannot fathom getting NETFLIX. I'm not sure why either.

[stroke]

I really liked Vilas also. Old school massive left forearm.

[seano]

DB -

We may have passed each other in the stands at the Old Washington Star tournament. Grew up just outside of DC and as a teenager my parents would buy season passes for the tournament, would spend the whole day there. In fact, I played on those clay courts last month with a good friend. From the documentary, they hinted that Vilas may not be doing great these days, not sure but got that impression.

Sean

[don_budge]

DB -

We may have passed each other in the stands at the Old Washington Star tournament. Grew up just outside of DC and as a teenager my parents would buy season passes for the tournament, would spend the whole day there. In fact, I played on those clay courts last month with a good friend. From the documentary, they hinted that Vilas may not be doing great these days, not sure but got that impression.

Sean

Fascinating seano. I was there in '72 and '73. Man...that Don Budge experience was the best. What a fine man he was. One of the best gentlemen that I have met in all my life. He rates right up there with my father and my tennis coach. Lucky me!

You too. I wonder if we did cross paths. Maybe you saw me trying to engage Ion Tiriac in a conversation. My opener was, "Is it true that you have actually eaten an ash tray?". That got his attention and I got a couple of words out of him. I was a big Nastase fan and he made a couple of jokes about Nasty. "Birds in his head instead of a brain"...that sort of thing. Amazing character. Vilas too. Here's an article to go along with that Netflix documentary you are writing about.

https://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2020/10/settling-score-netflixs-doc-about-vilas-long-running-no-1-quest/91586/

Wouldn't mind crossing paths with you one day. We actually have...this forum is a great place to cross paths on. Interesting...isn't it?

[stroke]

https://decider.com/2020/10/28/guillermo-vilas-settling-the-score-on-netflix-stream-it-or-skip-it/

[doctorhl]

Did any of you guys get to see Nasty play in person. If so, was he really as talented as people say(or as good as the videos seemed to show)?

[stotty]

Did any of you guys get to see Nasty play in person. If so, was he really as talented as people say(or as good as the videos seemed to show)?

Yes, he was incredibly gifted. I saw him play live around 6 or 7 times. He was as talented as anyone who has played the game and probably more so. He played very much off the cuff and glided around doing amazing things. He moved beautifully. His downside is that he was a sore loser and would resort to cheating if needs be. He wasn't the nicest bloke in the world under pressure and would say and do things I'm sure he must regret today....or maybe not as he is partly deranged.

He was lovely to watch and at his best could hit a winner off anything he could get a racket to, which made him mesmerising to watch. Definitely the most talented player of the classic era, bar none. He was a genius.

[stroke]

Yes, he was incredibly gifted. I saw him play live around 6 or 7 times. He was as talented as anyone who has played the game and probably more so. He played very much off the cuff and glided around doing amazing things. He moved beautifully. His downside is that he was a sore loser and would resort to cheating if needs be. He wasn't the nicest bloke in the world under pressure and would say and do things I'm sure he must regret today....or maybe not as he is partly deranged.

He was lovely to watch and at his best could hit a winner off anything he could get a racket to, which made him mesmerising to watch. Definitely the most talented player of the classic era, bar none. He was a genius.

Could not agree more. So on point.

[stotty]

DB -

From the documentary, they hinted that Vilas may not be doing great these days, not sure but got that impression.

Sean

From what I understand Vilas has fairly advanced dementia.

[arturohernandez]

Me too seano...a big fan of Guillermo growing up. It started for me around 1973 or so at the old Washington Star tennis tournament played on Har-tru. I was at the Don Budge Tennis Camp in McDonough, Maryland and he would take the whole camp to the tournament as a field trip every year. I will never forget Mr. Budge gushing over the Vilas backhand. There weren't too many players rolling over it the way Vilas was at that point in tennis history. Don was absolutely enthralled.

And I was as well. I remember playing best of eleven ping pong in my buddy Paul Morgan's basement. We would play all of the players styles. From Connors to Borg to McEnroe...Vilas too. I remember exclaiming "VILAS!!!" hitting topspin backhand winners. Screaming "VILAS!!!" until the wee hours. He was a compelling character and personality. Ion Tiriac was responsible for coaching and grooming him. Sure wish I could see this documentary but I cannot fathom getting NETFLIX. I'm not sure why either.

"Guillermo Vilas!" was reserved for the backhand smash in my high school tennis playing days. Everyone would yell that out and then go try and imitate his shot.

[don_budge]

"Guillermo Vilas!" was reserved for the backhand smash in my high school tennis playing days. Everyone would yell that out and then go try and imitate his shot.

Well, they didn't call him the "Bull of the Pampos" for nothing. They did call him that didn't they. Guillermo was a gentle soul. A poet at heart. Now, from a report in the post preceding yours, I won't mention who posted because he doesn't acknowledge that I exist, Guillermo Vilas has advanced dementia. Vilas is almost exactly my age as he was born in 1952. He is 68 and I am 66. This sort of hits close to home. I watched this rather beautiful human being hit the scene and just came out running. He was part of the end of the best era in tennis. He along with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl and Vitas Gerulaitis to mention just a few. Those nimble footed, gifted hands talented tennis players of yesterday.

Gerulaitis' life ended tragically. Now there is word of Guillermo experiencing life changing difficulties. We are at that age when things can go south. I can relate and I can feel some empathy for Guillermo even though I never knew him. But I did witness him as a rising star at the Washington Star. I yelled his name in Paul Morgan's basement, who sadly passed a number of years ago as well. My good friend Paul. Nobody here gets out alive.

So, it's a beautiful thing that you share this memory arturohernandez. Shouting his name in exclamation. To make a point. In your case the backhand overhead. Wonderful. I wonder if that would bring a smile to Guillermo's face. I wonder if my story would.

So there is some wisdom here to be gleaned. It is pretty simple really. We come and we go and that is a thing that I know. No time to waste on pettiness. Unless you do it by choice...this is why I have been beating the drum on Stotty lately. bottle chose his own path and his own demise. I had nothing to do with that. It was self inflicted. You've made your point and I truly don't care. But it is another strike against the forum whose participation has dwindled and it's life seems to have a couple of question marks to go along with it. Don't say I didn't try. It's a two way street. It always is and always has been. Life comes and goes. There is a delicacy in our existence that we perhaps don't know until suddenly it hits us. Then it is over.

I wish that I could turn back time and play some more ping pong in Paul's basement with Paul and the other two. My friend Paul. God bless his soul. Guillermo too. God bless him.

[stroke]

DB, you really do need to see the Netflix documentary on Vilas. You would love it.

[don_budge]

DB, you really do need to see the Netflix documentary on Vilas. You would love it.

I remember something he wrote. Way back when. I went something like this..."you can build up your life like a stack of cards and then a wind comes along a blows it all away". It was true. All true. The wind comes and blows it all away. Just a super character back in the day. Compared to the knuckleheads today that have been raised on cell phone and computers, Guillermo was an icon. He would have been anyways. An all time great. Lefty too. Somewhat of a kindred spirit as you said to me on Facebook. Bro.