BARCELONA – Five decades have passed, but Spain’s Manuel Orantes has not forgotten how his relationship with Argentina’s Guillermo Vilas went from a close friendship to total and definitive estrangement.
“He started undervaluing me after I had helped him,” Orantes said in an interview with CLAY held in April in Barcelona. “He tells lies,” added the 1975 US Open champion and 1976 Masters Grand Prix winner.
At 77, Orantes—a former ATP World No. 2 and winner of 34 titles—sat down with CLAY at a table in the restaurant of Barcelona’s Club Bonasport to look back on those years when his relationship with Vilas, a fellow lefty, completely collapsed. Fifty years after those events, Orantes reveals for the first time unprecedented details of a rift that was never repaired.
Vilas, who will turn 73 on August 17, suffers from an illness that has kept him secluded in Monte Carlo for years, far from the public eye.
– I’d like to ask you about Guillermo Vilas. Do you think the 1975 US Open semifinal against the Argentine was your best match? You were down 6-1, 6-4, 2-6, 5-0 and 40-0 and ended up winning…
– I don’t think it was my best match. In the quarterfinals, the match before, I beat Nastase (6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3). And that one was an incredible, very tough match. And Vilas… Well, the thing is that I had issues with him that year and…
– What issues?
– Before, in ’74, we had played doubles together, but later he started to undervalue me when I had actually helped him. In 1975, we had played three matches before the US Open and I had won all of them without losing a set. In the US, I didn’t play as well, but I beat him again. I remember I held such a grudge against him for what he had done to me, for undervaluing me… that when I was 5-0 and 40-0 down in the fourth set, I told myself I was going to stay out there fighting until the end. And I won that set 7-5 and then 6-4 in the fifth. Afterward, in the press conference back in his country, he said his whole body had broken down and that’s why he had lost seven games in a row. And I thought, ‘Why are you telling lies? If you are broken in the fourth set, you don’t lose 6-4 in the fifth, you lose 6-0.’ Something similar happened to me against Borg in the 1974 Roland Garros final. I had beaten him in all our previous matches and won the first two sets (6-2, 7-6) very comfortably. Near the end of the second set, leading 4-1, I started feeling back pain. I managed to win that set in the tiebreak, but ended up losing 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 because I could barely move. I kept playing to see if it would pass, but if you’re injured, you’re injured…
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
– Did you ever settle things with Vilas?
– No, because I’m the kind of person where if you treat me badly and kick me… Shall I tell you what happened?
– Please.
– In ’74, I played against him several times and I was still better than him. We played some doubles together and started playing well. Near the end of the year, we played a tournament in Sweden, then there was one in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, and right after came the Masters, which we were both playing on grass in Australia. The idea was to go together because we had a good relationship. So I asked Guillermo if I could stay in Buenos Aires after the tournament and travel to Australia together. He told me there was a great club in Argentina with grass courts where we could both train. We agreed to practice together and then fly to Australia with a physio we both knew. We reached the singles and doubles finals in Buenos Aires, and I told him, ‘I’ll wait for you at the hotel, call me and we’ll leave together.’ But he didn’t call me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
– Did he offer any explanation?
– He told me it was because he was so good and famous in Argentina that people wouldn’t leave him alone, that he couldn’t step out onto the street… I couldn’t train on grass those days, but I stayed in Buenos Aires and eventually we flew to Australia together. When we arrived, I hadn’t touched a grass court, but despite that, I was still better than him. We trained there together that week and everything was great. The tournament starts, he plays amazingly well and wins it. And in the press conference, not a single word about all our training together or the coach. He talked about Borg, that Borg was his idol, but nothing about me. And he gave nothing to the coach who had been helping us. From then on, I played against him with a grudge and said to myself: ‘Now I’m going to show you who I am.’
– Was that all?
– He tells lies. He told another lie that has nothing to do with reality. Besides, when you consider someone a friend, those aren’t things you should say.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
– What are you referring to?
– Well, there was a year when we were very close in the rankings and he made a statement saying, ‘I tricked Orantes.’ He said something like, ‘I told Orantes that before the next tournament I was going home to rest and wasn’t going to play. He believed it and left too. But I stayed, played, and took the points from him.’ That is a lie. Besides, if I’m your friend, do you really think you should go around telling a story like that? If we are fighting for No. 2 and you want to rest, do whatever you want. I’ll do whatever I want. And at Roland Garros 1980, another thing happened with Vilas, although he wasn’t entirely to blame there…
– What happened?
– I was playing Vilas in the round of 16 and I think we were scheduled fourth on court. When the third match started, I went to the locker room and watched it on TV. When that match was about to end, the referee came over and told me, ‘Manolo, it looks like you’ve already won this match.’ I asked, ‘What happened?’ And he said, ‘Vilas is sick with a fever and isn’t coming. If he isn’t ready to play in 15 or 20 minutes, he forfeits.’ Sure enough, 20 minutes passed, the referee returned, and told me I had won the match. So I went to the gym to work out for my next match.
But the president of the International Tennis Federation, Philippe Chatrier, came to the gym, called me over and said, ‘Manolo, I’m going to ask you a favor, because you are a great sportsman and you’re going to try to help me.’ I asked how I could help. He said, ‘I think you should give Vilas a chance to play the match tomorrow.’ I said, ‘Look, we are at Roland Garros. Do you really think this can be done? This is a rule many players have suffered from. There can’t be an exception; this is a major tournament.’ I obviously told him no. Besides, I’m not going to do a favor for someone who doesn’t deserve it. Chatrier told me, ‘No, no, I’m in charge here, I’m the ITF president. Tomorrow I’m scheduling the match, and if you’re not there, you forfeit.’ I flatly refused because those things make no sense. And he put it on the schedule for the next day. Naturally, I didn’t show up, but later I filed a lawsuit against them in France and they got hit hard by the court. But I couldn’t play the tournament and lost a great opportunity. Vilas advanced and played in the quarterfinals against (Harold) Solomon, whom I always beat comfortably on clay. Solomon won that match because Vilas was still sick. Of course—if you were sick yesterday, you’re sick today. I believe that, sportsmanship-wise, Vilas should have said he couldn’t play, that hurting Orantes made no sense… But he didn’t.
