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Vitas Gerulaitis was another incredible performer. It turns out that he was performing much of the time under the influence of a night out on the town...which is another type of incredible performance. A party boy to be sure he showed up to play tennis. That's old school too. The old timers would be out prowling around during the night before they hit the court the next day. Here is Gerulaitis playing the Bad One in New York City at the U. S. Open. An incredible stage for the two rebels to be playing in the semi-finals when it wasn't so far from the place where they had learned their craft under the tutelage of Harry Hopman who is, as you know, the coach in the don_budge teaching paradigm for tennis coaching. This is an amazing display of all court tennis played by two beautiful players. The movement and quickness is unbelievable with the nimble feet and the wonderful touch in the hands, yet both players tough as nails on the hard and fast cement at Flushing Meadows.
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Nice. I haven't watched Vitas for a while now. Looked like he'd been up all night by the look of his dark eye sockets in that clip.
When you study McEnroe technically you see what have always been considered (even back then) technical flaws; the dropped racket head on the forehand, and the open racket face during the take back of his topspin backhand. Yet it seemed to matter not to McEnroe.
But it was a different game then, wasn't it?: different rackets, different balls, different court, different clothes, different era, different way of looking at the game...the list goes on.
It was fitting the classic era culminated in this match right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRign2Pkhes
I always thought Borg's volleys were ugly and his overhead suspect, but they seemed to get the job done. His overriding tactic during the match was to get the ball deep to McEnroe's backhand, a tactic that worked so well for him. "No matter what goes wrong, stick to the bloody plan". You can almost hear Lennart saying that silently in the player's box.
Classic tennis ain't coming back. It never will. That game is over...finished...gone forever. Shame, but at least we have some decent clips (if not grainy) here and there to remind us of a time that once was.StottyComment
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John McEnroe vs. Vitas Gerulaitis...1981 U. S. Open Men's Semifinals
Originally posted by don_budge View Post
Wow! What a freaking match! Vitas Gerailitus had all but disappeared in 1981 and was seeded #15 in this U. S. Open. He was ranked #17. But somehow he found the wherewithal to defeat Ivan Lendl, the #3 seed and very nearly sent John McEnroe packing. Just a brilliant match tactically and technically. The volleying was just scintillating. It was a blustery day down in the bowl of the stadium and the ball was playing tricks on the players not to mention the players were playing tricks on each other. Just brilliant, brilliant stuff. The first four sets of the match are without commentators but in the fifth John Newcombe, Tony Trabert and Pat Summerall came on board to make it a very special moment in time.
Nearly forty years ago and we can see that today that the tennis has really taken a nose dive. It is in the words of the great John McEnroe, "The Pits of the World". It couldn't have been said more eloquently. If not eloquently...then succinctly. The tennis today sucks. So don't watch this match because it is going to spoil the slop they are serving up these days as an excuse for tennis. The variety of shot was dazzling. The improvisation at times. The relentless pursuit of classic tactics. The approach to the net and then the defensive options and then the volley. Both players text book perfect on the volleys. The placement, pace and spin just perfectly applied. The intelligent play. Thoughtful approach drawn out over five sets. A marathon. Both players nimble as cats. Terrific stuff. Really...just think. Tennis metaphors life. How far has the game of tennis evolved? Answer...it has devolved. The idiots have successfully engineered whole part and parcel of the most exciting aspects of the game right out of it. Sheer and utter stupidity. Think life is any different. Take a look. Does any of this make any sense to anyone? The idiots have engineered this into one big bloody mess.
One comment on the serving in this match. Both players struggled. Neither could get the first serve percentage over sixty percent. But the second serves were unbelievable. Not letting up after missing the first. The second was hit with the same amount of pace but with more spin. The depth was extremely good. The wind must have thrown things off considerably. Both players with ball tosses no higher than necessary. The ball was hit nearly at the apex.
The lines person configuration was interesting. As far as I could tell there was only one lines person calling the sideline and the middle service line. So the person calling the sideline was also calling it on the other side of the court as well. There was very little grousing about the lines calls. Surprising considering who was playing. The most hysterical moment of the match came on a rather mundane "let" call. A ball was loose and the umpire called a let after the point. McEnroe made a lot of hay about it and then he just got busy where it appears that this was the point where Vitas lost a bit of concentration. Perhaps a bit of gamesmanship. I would have expected Newcombe and Trabert to come down a bit harder on Johnny Boy. They held their fire.
There was so much to be learned from John Newcombe and Tony Trabert in their commentary. Newcombe and Tony Roche lost to McEnroe and Peter Fleming the day before in a five set doubles semifinal. McEnroe ended up winning the doubles as well. That is another thing you don't see anymore. The singles players playing doubles. But I don't think Borg, Connors, Lendl or Gerulaitis played double either.
It is sort of sad to see how tennis has gone downhill and how far it has gone. You look at the racquets that these two were using and the magic that they were producing. McEnroe using a classic Maxply Dunlop and Vitas has a Snauwert wood frame. Beautiful racquets. McEnroe had four or five racquets in his bag. It was curious to see him switch when he broke a string on the CBS net microphone which he boinked for good measure. He pulled the sticks out of his bag and he some what haphazardly went about hitting them against each other as if he was selecting the one that had the desired tone. I almost want to say that the Wilson Jack Kramer Pro Staff suited him better. Interesting he was switching wooden frames when the rest of the crew were trading up to midsize and graphite. I think you can say what you want about McEnroe and his behaviour...you would probably be justified. But his saving grace was he had a huge respect for the tradition of the game. The history. It is interesting that he let his behaviour get so out of hand.
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Here's an interesting clip...and very decent quality for the year. It's twenty minutes' worth of the 1973 Wimbledon final between Jan Kodes and Alex Metreveli. I hadn't seen Metreveli play before. The ads are irritating but worth sitting through just to get a glimpse of what that final was like.
Metreveli was struggling with the task right from the outset and just couldn't settle down. The first set flies by 6-1 to Kodes but at least Metreveli gathers some sort of form to make a game of it in the second before collapsing in the third. Kodes is just solid throughout and his temperament held up better. It must have been an ordeal for both men as 1973 was the boycott year and perhaps the only chance either would have to win the title. It looked a nerve-wracking affair. Nastase seriously screwed up that year.
There no chairs to sit on at the changeover, the players are neatly dressed in all white, and the match was played with the minimum of fuss.StottyComment
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When Tennis Ruled The World...and some.
StottyComment
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Thanks for that link. It was brilliantly done and did such a wonderful job of showing the bridge between two tennis worlds. ( I was fortunate to attend the King-Riggs match and didn’t realize its cultural implications at the time). It was interesting how that video is a representation of the cultural change between the western pre and post World WII generations......tennis as a reflection of cultural change. Has the West evolved for the better? Historians say the next world shift will be to the East.Comment
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